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Yellow Peril

Patrizia Barrera

Copyright

Copyright Patrizia Barrera 2021

All Right Reserved

Translated, Adapted, and Edited

by

MAGDA PALA

Dedica

To my mother, who never really loved me and is now forever lost, I devote this book.

Are you finally proud of me? Wherever you are, I sure hope so.

Yellow Peril, yellow danger
The Origins

Let’s face it. United States have always been racist. In order to massacre Natives and enslaving Black People, one needs a huge sense of entitlement. Did someone mention superiority complex? Deep and unhealthy pleasure in abusing others, perhaps? Sure, between the Seventieth and Eightieth centuries pretty much every Western country behaved the same way. Only in the US, however, power over Diversity -both ethnicity and class- became institutionalized. Police and Government alike tolerated and encouraged lynching as a Tool Of Justice.

The Black Codes and, later, Jim Crow Laws are the ideal examples of how racist that society was. History does not lie. Afro-Americans were, and still are, the most criminalized class in the United States Of America. Still, few know -or, maybe, few comment- about the discrimination towards Chinese. Recruited on purpose as cheap labour between 1848 and 1880, they worked -underpaid- in the most inhumane and dangerous tasks.

The entire troubled, and toxic, relationship between the USA and China provides enough material for one -or three- Encyclopaedias. But it is a truth universally acknowledged that clarity lies in the simplicity of its expression and in the exposition of indisputable facts. Facts that speak volumes. Therefore, the chosen examples demonstrate -more than sufficiently- that the American Dream is marked with blood. History, as stated, does not lie . Ever.

Picture it. Natives were no longer a threat. If they ever were one, especially on their own land. Almost the whole territory was rich in mineral deposits. Consequently, railways started to pop up everywhere. The New Continent needed a makeover, in order to be Yankee Friendly. However, Southern States’ slavery began to tremble under the ideological impulse -and politics- of Abolitionism. Furthermore, the number of Northerners willing to face those arduous shifts of work imposed by the Companies were not many.

The real wave of Immigration, the one that would have brought millions of souls around the world to land in the US -all of them blinded by the mirage of a hypothetical wealth- was to happen only much later. Nonetheless, Uncle Sam needed that work force in the mid-1800s. It was clearly indispensable to make the Quantum Leap and being in a dominant position towards Europe. The Gold Rush, undoubtedly, attracted multitudes of people. It was, on the other hand, visible from the start that it was a temporary phenomenon. One destined to end, once the valuable resources expired. As indeed happened.

Thousands of cities, built in a day, did not last. Undeniably, the gold miners were tireless workers. For their own personal gain. Once obtained enough wealth, they left. After all, unlike the rough and tough New Continent, Europe was a civilised nest.

Desperate times, though, require desperate measures. As a result, with slavery abolished, the United States brought back serfdom by importing labour on purpose.