Taxpayer-supported National Public Radio is pro-Islam and anti-racism, so it’s only natural their “Code Switch” project would compare the Trump executive order restricting immigration for six majority-Muslim countries... with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, signed by President Chester Arthur. Islam is portrayed as a racial category, and nobody should try to fact-check that "resonance," because the emotions are running high.
On Friday, “Code Switch” reporter Kat Chow posted an article promoting “experts” – a verbal masquerade for liberal race hustlers – to find parallels between Trump’s travel restrictions and banning Chinese immigration. Chow also promoted a San Francisco leftist rally in advance:
Experts point to the parallels between the political climate of the exclusion era and today: a close and contentious presidential election [Hayes vs. Tilden, 1876] that stirred anti-immigrant sentiment; the growing economic anxiety of white Americans; and policies that would drastically shape the country's immigration laws.
On Saturday, a group of Asian American activists are organizing a rally in San Francisco to acknowledge the anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act and to "learn from our past and prevent it from repeating," according to Cynthia Choi, who works with Chinese For Affirmative Action, one of the groups organizing the event.
"This is important for the Chinese American and broader Asian American community, to stand up against the new targets to this new form of exclusion, for us to say it was wrong 135 years ago and it's wrong today," Choi said.
Then Chow turned to University of Minnesota professor Erika Lee, who explicitly compared Muslims to a racial category:
Lee says that today's equivalent is the proposed so-called "Muslim ban," because it singles out specific groups of people for discrimination. "The fact that we don't explicitly name Muslims [in the executive order] is more of a reflection of how our racial sensibilities have changed over the past 135 years, in terms of being more polite in our racism."
...Still, Lee said, what's different is the nationwide grassroots efforts and legal challenges that have sprung up against Trump's immigration policies. "There were no protests in support of Chinese immigrants [during the exclusion era in the U.S.]," Lee said.
On her Twitter feed, Kat Chow also promoted an NBC News story touting Democrat state Sen. Gene Wu comparing the Texas ban on sanctuary cities to the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese-American internment under Franklin Roosevelt.
