Week 11 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Ethnic Studies Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 11 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 61–74 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (19–21 min total)

① A law that named a nation, and the walls that answered it

Chapter 11, Section “Read the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: a law that named a nation” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Exclusion and Angel Island” · Remember: exclusion named one national origin, lasted from 1882 to 1943, and the carved walls are a record the detainees made themselves.

What was the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act? — American Experience | PBS — a documentary excerpt that opens with an 1885 newspaper letter from a young Chinese immigrant, read aloud, and then has historians explain the 1882 act as one of the first comprehensively restrictive immigration laws and the first to single out a group by name; notice that it says exclusion stayed in force for more than 60 years, which matches the chapter's 1882 to 1943. Use it while completing the Week-11 module overview. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)
Chinese Exclusion Act — Immigration History — a historians' society's teaching page on the 1882 law: a short summary of why it marked a turn from a mostly open door toward restriction, then excerpts from the law's own text, including the ten-year suspension of Chinese laborers and the section that barred courts from admitting Chinese immigrants to citizenship; read the summary and the excerpts, then try one of its discussion questions. (reading, 5–8 min)
Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems — KQED — a public-television documentary on how a state park ranger rediscovered the carved walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station and how former detainees and their families came back to tell their side; listen for the point that most of the carvings are poems written in Chinese. (video, 12 min) (captions: automatic)

② Born here, or naturalized?

Chapter 11, Section “Compare Ozawa, Thind, and the 1924 act: who could become a citizen, and who could enter” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Citizenship by birth and naturalization” · Remember: a child born here was a citizen by birth, while naturalization stayed shut to people born in Japan or India under the white person rule.

The Supreme Court Case that Affirmed Birthright Citizenship — American Experience | PBS — a short documentary excerpt on how Wong Kim Ark, born in California, was refused re-entry through San Francisco and took his case to the Supreme Court, which read the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause in his favor in 1898. This builds on Week 6's work with the 14th Amendment and its citizenship clause. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)
Ozawa v. United States — Densho Encyclopedia — an encyclopedia entry on the 1922 case: who Takao Ozawa was, how his case reached the Supreme Court, and how the ruling set the stage for the Immigration Act of 1924; read the paragraphs on the ruling and skip the reference list. (reading, 6–9 min)

③ An order, a court case, and the words we use

Chapter 11, Section “Explain Executive Order 9066: an order, not a law, and the words we use” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Executive Order 9066 and Korematsu” · Remember: the order came from the President, not Congress, most people removed were citizens, and the course says incarceration and forced removal.

Executive Order 9066 - Japanese American Incarceration — FDRLibrary — a short presidential-library video on the order, the forced removal, and the camps; notice that it uses the government's words relocate and interned, where the course says forced removal and incarceration, and that it gives a total of over 120,000 people, a figure this course teaches in words rather than as a keyed number. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
Arrested For Resisting Mass Removal (audio clip) - Fred Korematsu — Densho — an audio excerpt from Fred Korematsu's own oral-history interview, in which he describes the day he was recognized on a street corner, questioned, and jailed for staying in his hometown; set this real oral history beside the course's illustrative E7 and ask what each kind of account can and cannot prove. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

④ Redress and the record

Chapter 11, Section “Define redress and read E7: two papers in one drawer” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Redress and E7” · Remember: the 1988 law apologized and paid 20,000 dollars to each surviving person, 46 years after the order.

Righting a Wrong — Densho — a documentary on what happened after the camps closed, the commission that examined the causes of the order, and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, including a clip of the President's remarks at the signing; notice that it calls the camps concentration camps, Densho's own term, where the course says incarceration, and that it gives its own figures for the people removed and the survivors paid. It ends on survivors urging others to speak out; next week takes up the 1965 immigration law, which this video does not cover. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)
Civil Liberties Act of 1988 — Densho Encyclopedia — an encyclopedia entry on how the 1988 law came to pass and what it provided, from the apology to the payments; notice that it quotes the law's own wording for the causes, which differs slightly from the commission's wording the course quotes. (reading, 6–9 min)
Remarks on Signing the Bill Providing Restitution for the Wartime Internment of Japanese-American Civilians — Reagan Library — the President's own remarks at the 1988 signing, a primary source; notice that the speech uses the government's word internment and its own figures, and read it for what the government admitted. (reading, 4–6 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Facts and Case Summary — Korematsu v. U.S. — U.S. Courts — the federal courts' own summary of the 1944 case and the 1983 ruling that overturned Korematsu's conviction; read the background and the facts, and skip the classroom-simulation material. (reading, 4–6 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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