For four decades, my great-grandparents had homes and a thriving fishing business in Monterey, California. Yet soon after the mayor and local townspeople complained about Chinese settlement to the landlord, a mysterious fire destroyed the village in 1906. As onlookers cheered those who looted the homes, my great-grandparents lost all their property. With nothing left, they sought refuge and a new start in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Unfortunately, my family could not purchase a home for generations: California amended its Constitution in 1879 to state that only white residents or those of African descent could purchase property. The state’s 1913 Alien Land Law employed racially coded terminology barring “aliens ineligible for citizenship” to keep Chinese and Japanese people from purchasing property.
Indeed, the only way my parents were finally able to buy a house in 1952 was through a non-Asian third party, because racially restrictive housing covenants kept them out of many neighborhoods.
As we Americans celebrate our nation’s freedom on this Fourth of July, this history of state-sanctioned exclusion and discriminatory housing policies is repeating itself.
Capitalizing on current, widespread anti-China sentiment in the United States, lawmakers in nearly 30 states have proposed or have passed legislation banning foreign nationals, governments and companies from purchasing land, particularly farmland or property near military bases.
Although they ostensibly aim to protect America’s national security, they have other dangerous consequences – stoking xenophobic biases and targeting of Asian Americans for further racial profiling and exclusion.
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More than 8 out of 10 Americans see China as a national security and military threat, according to The Asian American Foundation’s latest STAATUS Index report. Seeking to draw upon these voters, state politicians from both parties have introduced anti-China bills.
In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said his state “is taking action to stand against the United States’ greatest geopolitical threat – the Chinese Communist Party.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared in December that “the threat of the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate the United States continues to grow. While the federal government holds the ultimate responsibility for foreign policy issues, the State also has the responsibility and opportunity to protect itself.”
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Laws effectively sanction scapegoating of Asian Americans
Bans on Chinese individuals and others of foreign nations from property ownership do not protect the United States, nor do they stave off any impending threat. Just 3% of agricultural land in the United States is owned by foreign investors, with less than 1% owned by those from China.
Instead, what these laws effectively do is discriminate against Asian Americans and sanction greater scapegoating of their communities.
Although previous alien land laws have been ruled unconstitutional for violating the 14th Amendment right to equal protection, as well as regulations against discrimination based on race and national origin, the current legislations continue to target China. They will have devastating impacts on the Asian American community.
For example, the new Florida law unfairly equates Chinese citizens as agents of the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party. Likewise, U.S. citizens of Asian descent might also be unfairly profiled as disloyal foreign agents and be deprived of their constitutional civil liberties.
Such laws send a loud signal to the general public that certain groups are outsiders to America and don’t belong. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act communicated to the populace that the Chinese don’t belong in the United States. Subsequently, between 1885 and 1886, white mobs violently drove out at least 168 Chinese communities along the West Coast, just as my great-grandparent’s village was dispossessed in 1906.
Indeed, the official categorization of Asians as perilous “alien enemies,” as President Franklin Roosevelt named individuals of Japanese ancestry to incarcerate them during World War II, is another repeat of history. Hysteria and racism led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security registered and detained thousands of South Asians, Arab Americans and Muslims. In both cases, national security was the expressed rationale for this institutionalized discrimination targeting specific groups.
As these state bills sanction anti-Asian hate, along with the stigmatization of Asians as the source of COVID-19, Asian Americans subsequently now fear further scapegoating and hostility. The STAATUS Index found that 1 in 2 Asian Americans feel unsafe due to their race. Among all racial groups, they feel the least sense of belonging: Only 22% of Asians feel accepted in the United States.
Recognizing the dangers of these land laws, Democratic Reps. Judy Chu of California and Al Green of Texas have introduced the Preemption of Real Property Discrimination Act. This bill would prevent discrimination against individuals of foreign national origin and bar the restriction of their opportunity to purchase land.
The real threat to our nation’s national security and our constitutional freedom is not international competition – but our own racism and history of scapegoating. This Fourth of July, let’s not repeat the past but preserve our civil rights.
Russell Jeung is professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. He is writing a book on “yellow peril” racism, racial trauma and the Asian American movement for racial justice.
