Gaining Perspective on #Racism in the United States

I strongly recommend The Chinese Exclusion Act – from PBS’s American Experience, now available for streaming and on-demand.

A rich and troubling historical documentary that demonstrates yet another way in which racism has always been a fundamental piece of the American soul, throughout our nation’s history. Racism goes beyond our treatment of black Americans, the most obvious example. It also includes the ways our citizens have dealt with Native Americans and encompasses all the recent Trump talk about immigrants.

There is a disturbing pattern here that shows how much the “other” has been identified as a continuing scapegoat for so many ills. This is well worth the two-hour investment. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/chinese-exclusion-act/