Conclusions from Violence Group
Conclusions
Simran: One of my biggest takeaways is thinking about how different our world is today with respect to how we interpret media and tragedy due to the rise of social media. It is remarkable that there is photographic evidence of some of the massacre, as it helps modern day historians make sense of what truly happened. Yet, today we have photos, videos, and outlets like the news and social media that allows people all over the world to stay up to date with a realistic understanding of an event. It is also interesting to me to think about how that may change the way we proceed after a dispicable event like the LA Chinese Massacre. I would imagine, in today's day and age, direct photographic evidence of a hate crime would breed more empathy globally, and cultivate an energy of change. But, when looking at today's truth, I think about all of the different hate crimes that had to take place against Black Americans for the "Black Lives Matter" movement to begin. This makes me wonder how bad an event or crime has to be for people, either in the 1870s or today, to genuinely want to change.Amy: Compared to our presentation in December where I mainly was focused on where the physical location of Chinatown was positioned then and now, and the specific events that occurred during the massacre, I wanted this new section to be focused on the specific rising tensions that lead to the 1871 uprising as well as other acts of violence outside of the physical definition. This journal was published by SurveyLA which was documented in conjunction with the City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning, and Office of Historic Resources. This journal opened my eyes to the interesting settlement patterns by Chinese immigrants, the provinces they came from in China, the specific jobs that were assigned to them in the US, if those roles and public perception on Chinese people in America have really differed much since then, and the different acts of violence towards Chinese people as well as racist legislation enacted to further harm this group of people. I really enjoyed reading from this journal entry as well as the different legislations put in place to formally exclude Chinese people from the country or even jobs while living in the US. As much as I would like to think about the progress that has been made since the early 1900s, there are still acts of anti-asian hate that occur today. As much as I want to say having an open dialogue and conversation is the answer, I am not sure anymore. I don’t think kindness and treating others equally is something that can be taught.
Mateo: One of the biggest things that I learned from doing this project is how anti-asian sentiment is still imbedded into American fabric 150 years after the Chinese Massacre. It feels like I have gone through life with blinders, unaware of how much prejudice Chinese and Chinese Americans face. Learning about the horrific event makes me reflect on my K-12 education and just how little textbooks talk about the lack of social justice back then and present. Little is done to remember the atrocities and prevent history from repeating.
Anna: Before this class I had never heard anything about the Chinese Massacre and had very little insight into the history of LA. I think this event should be taught in school because it offers an important backdrop to the anti-Asian sentiment of today. It was important to learn about how Asian Americans were introduced into California, because now it is one of the states with the biggest population in America. For me who grew up in San Jose, Asian Americans were visibly around 80% of my classmates, and yet this kind of history wasn't covered. It was interesting to me that there was Hispanic on Chinese violence as well, even though both were in subbordinate positions in society to White Americans, and that only later in 1900s they banded together to help each other.