Asian-Americans and African-Americans in Several

¶ … Asian-Americans and African-Americans in several key areas of their immigration to the United States. African-Americans and Asian-Americans have suffered many of the same abuses and prejudices as they sought to become Americans. They have many commonalities and some differences as well. Their arrival in America has been controversial, and their presence here adds to a more diverse and varied society today.

Asian-Americans and African-Americans both had to immigrate to the United States, they were not native to the area. African-Americans were some of the first immigrants to arrive; most of them were initially brought here against their will to serve as slaves in both the North and South of the eastern United States. There are records of slaves and free blacks living in the U.S. In the 1700s and by the early1800s, there were thousands of blacks working as slaves on the great plantations of the South.

African-Americans came to the U.S. via two main routes. Most all were shipped to the U.S. from Africa on slave ships after they were captured from their homelands. The route from Africa to Europe and on to America was called the Middle Passage (Palmer, 2000, p. 15). Conditions on the slave ships were horrible, as many black historians have noted. One writes, "Chained together and confined to the cramped, hot, and humid holds of the ships, these Africans were lucky if they survived the ordeal" (Palmer, 2000, p. 15). Some slaves also came to America via the Caribbean, where they worked on sugar cane and other plantations before they were "imported" to the United States.

Asian-Americans also came to the United States aboard ships, mostly from China. They too suffered horrible conditions, and many perished before they arrived at their destination. Later, many Chinese women were shipped to the United States against their will to work as prostitutes, and they came by ship as well. Thus, both groups endured difficult voyages to reach America. The Chinese had to pay, sometimes exorbitant sums to reach their destination, while blacks had no say in their lives after they were kidnapped and boarded ship.

Asian-Americans immigrated to this country mostly out of hope for work and a better life. The first Asians to arrive were Chinese on the West Coast. One author notes, "The Chinese were the first Asian group that entered in large and persistent numbers. About 52,000 Chinese arrived in 1852 alone. They were lured by the prospects of finding good jobs and fortunes in the western United States" (Lien, Conway & Wong, 2004, p. 4). They also came to America because they were experiencing poverty, warfare, and other cultural issues going on at the time.

African-Americans came to this country mostly against their will. Slave traders kidnapped them in Africa and took them away from their homes and families to serve as slaves in the American South. When they arrived from their terrible journey, they were sold to the highest bidder and became someone else's property, with no rights and little chance for freedom. They did not have hope for a better life, as the Chinese did, which made their introduction into the country even more difficult.

Both ethnic groups were treated horribly after their arrival. The Chinese (and other immigrants after them) experienced racism and misunderstanding. Two historians note, "Historically, the many diverse ethnic groups within the Asian-American community have experienced strikingly similar incidents of anti-Asian violence, including: the 1885 anti-Chinese riots in Rock Springs, Wyoming; [and] the armed expulsion of South Asian laborers from Live Oak, California in 1908" (Alvarez & Kimura, 2001, p. 192). The Chinese were forced to live in separate areas in most cities and towns, and were even buried in separate cemeteries, which can still be seen in many areas of the west. Later, the Federal Government passed an anti-immigration law banning nearly all Asian immigration to the U.S. Even families of Asians already here could not enter the country. Perhaps the most famous act of Asian prejudice occurred during World War II when all Japanese in the U.S., citizens or not, were "evacuated" from the west coast and forced into internment camps throughout the west. The lived in these camps until the end of the war, and many lost homes, businesses, and everything they had worked hard to attain.