Racial Reconstruction

Black Inclusion, Chinese Exclusion, and the Fictions of Citizenship

Nonfiction, History, Americas, North America, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Discrimination & Race Relations
Cover of the book Racial Reconstruction by Edlie L. Wong, NYU Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Edlie L. Wong ISBN: 9781479856572
Publisher: NYU Press Publication: October 23, 2015
Imprint: NYU Press Language: English
Author: Edlie L. Wong
ISBN: 9781479856572
Publisher: NYU Press
Publication: October 23, 2015
Imprint: NYU Press
Language: English

The end of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade triggered wide-scale labor shortages across the U.S. and Caribbean. Planters looked to China as a source for labor replenishment, importing indentured laborers in what became known as “coolieism.” From heated Senate floor debates to Supreme Court test cases brought by Chinese activists, public anxieties over major shifts in the U.S. industrial landscape and class relations became displaced onto the figure of the Chinese labor immigrant who struggled for inclusion at a time when black freedmen were fighting to redefine citizenship.

Racial Reconstruction demonstrates that U.S. racial formations should be studied in different registers and through comparative and transpacific approaches. It draws on political cartoons, immigration case files, plantation diaries, and sensationalized invasion fiction to explore the radical reconstruction of U.S. citizenship, race and labor relations, and imperial geopolitics that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, America’s first racialized immigration ban. By charting the complex circulation of people, property, and print from the Pacific Rim to the Black Atlantic, Racial Reconstruction sheds new light on comparative racialization in America, and illuminates how slavery and Reconstruction influenced the histories of Chinese immigration to the West.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The end of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade triggered wide-scale labor shortages across the U.S. and Caribbean. Planters looked to China as a source for labor replenishment, importing indentured laborers in what became known as “coolieism.” From heated Senate floor debates to Supreme Court test cases brought by Chinese activists, public anxieties over major shifts in the U.S. industrial landscape and class relations became displaced onto the figure of the Chinese labor immigrant who struggled for inclusion at a time when black freedmen were fighting to redefine citizenship.

Racial Reconstruction demonstrates that U.S. racial formations should be studied in different registers and through comparative and transpacific approaches. It draws on political cartoons, immigration case files, plantation diaries, and sensationalized invasion fiction to explore the radical reconstruction of U.S. citizenship, race and labor relations, and imperial geopolitics that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, America’s first racialized immigration ban. By charting the complex circulation of people, property, and print from the Pacific Rim to the Black Atlantic, Racial Reconstruction sheds new light on comparative racialization in America, and illuminates how slavery and Reconstruction influenced the histories of Chinese immigration to the West.

More books from NYU Press

Cover of the book Unfit for Democracy by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book Leonard Wood by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book New Media and Society by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book Women of the American South by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book Facing the Rising Sun by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book The Half-Life of Policy Rationales by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book Inside Insurgency by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book Environment and Society by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book The Virgin of El Barrio by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book The Wow Climax by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book How Chinese Are You? by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book Gallatin by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book The New H.N.I.C. by Edlie L. Wong
Cover of the book In the Web of Class by Edlie L. Wong
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy