The Chinese Exclusion Act has a lot to do with racism. First off, it was the first law that restricted immigrants from coming to the U.S. There were many other laws that restricted immigration, but those came after the Chinese Exclusion Act. Many people were racist to the Chinese before the Act because of the Gold Rush and their religion.
Religion
Because of the Chinese coming to America and practicing their religion, they set up places of worship and practiced Buddhism. The Pigtail Ordinance was a law that was passed that would make Chinese people who had long hair, to cut it off. This law was the first step that lead to a lot of racism to the Chinese and other Asian cultures and people. The flow of immigration was stopped by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This act outlawed all Chinese immigration to the U.S. and denied citizenship to those already settled within the country. Revived in 1892 and extended fully in 1902, the Chinese population decreased till the act was repealed in 1943 by the Magnuson Act.
Taxes and Laws
Many Western states passed discriminatory laws that made it tough for Chinese and Japanese immigrants to have land and get work. A number of these Anti-Chinese laws were the Foreign Miners' licensing fee that needed a monthly payment of 3 bucks from each foreign laborer. Foreign Chinese couldn't become voters as a result the Naturalization Act of 1790 that reserved naturalized citizenship to "free white persons". This remained in until repealed by the Civil Rights Act of 1870.By then, American state had collected 5 million dollars from the Chinese. To defend Free White Labor against competition with Chinese Asian Labor and to Discourage the Immigration of Chinese into the State of California" was another law that collected a required $2.50 tax per month on all Chinese living in the state, except Chinese businesses. Many taxes were discriminatory to Chinese and Mexican workers. Americas liked the Chinese and Latin American workers because they were cheap, inexpensive, and a dime a dozen. Even though they liked them, the Chinese population grew and Americans felt threatened by them. The tax basically made people who were not native-born in the U.S. to pay twenty dollars to get a license to mine.
Immigration
The first Chinese immigrants were open and accepted by Americans. They were rich and powerful, many of them became owners of shops. For the first few years they were accepted by everyone including the government. However, after a much larger group of unskilled Chinese laborers usually working for very little pay, migrated to the U.S. in the mid 1800's, Americans started to dislike them. By 1851, there were more than 25,000 Chinese immigrants in the U.S.
The Geary Act
The Geary Act extended the Chinese Exclusion Act by ten years. First act was only for ten years. Because of the Geary Act immigration for the Chinese was restricted for 20 years, not ten. When Chinese immigrants came they would go to court. Some cases...
