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Alien Land Laws and Japanese American Discrimination: A Historical Analysis, Summaries of World Politics

An in-depth analysis of the alien land laws, specifically the california alien land law of 1913 and the 1920 amendment, and their impact on japanese immigrants and japanese americans. The historical context, the loopholes in the laws, and the supreme court cases oyama v. California and korematsu v. Us, which challenged the constitutionality of these laws. The document also touches upon the internment of japanese americans during ww2 and its implications.

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I. Neary,

Asian Midterm politics

AAS 347 Spring 2019 Midterm #2 Study Guide

*1913/1920 Alien Land Laws The California Alien Land Law of 1913 (also known as the Webb-Haney Act) prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases over it, but permitted leases lasting up to three years. [1] It affected the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean immigrant farmers in California. Implicitly, the law was primarily directed at the Japanese. The California Alien Land Law of 1920 continued the 1913 law while filling many of its loopholes. Among the loopholes filled were that the leasing of land for a period of three years or less was no longer allowed; owning of stock in companies that acquired agricultural land was forbidden; and guardians or agents of ineligible aliens were required to submit an annual report on their activities. The 1920 Alien Land Law was passed in reaction to the intensification of anti-Japanese sentiment, and to the fact that the 1913 Alien Land Law was doing little to stem Japanese immigration to California. (targeted Japanese) ➢ Historical background ○ Political atmosphere early 1900s anti-Chinese → chinese exclusion act of 1882 ○ Racial oppression shifted to include and targeted majority of japanese due to anti-Asian sentiments from americans ○ Alien ineligible for citizenship, cannot own land, only lease ➢ California Alien Land Law of 1913 (Webb-Haney Act) ○ Prohibited “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land, which was aimed at hurting Japanese farmers ○ Didn’t really work because of loopholes ○ 1920: harsher regulations → high levels of poverty among jap community (negative materialistic impact ) → closes loopholes, gets around the loopholes of 1913 Act ➢ Loopholes ○ Created corporations to purchase land ○ Purchasing land through white intermediaries ○ Purchased land using children’s names ■ Oyama v. California Loopholes: ● Many Japanese individuals bought land under children’s name, since children were not “aliens ineligible for citizenship” and companies/corporations were able to purchase the lands. Eventually Loopholes were plugged up. In 1920 alien land laws.

  • Laws that stopped “aliens ineligible to citizenship” - immigrants racially restricted from naturalizing and becoming citizens - from owning agricultural land and property, which extended to constructing businesses and homes.
  • They were a set of laws crafted with targeted discriminatory intent against Asian immigrants despite the face-value ‘colorblind’ lettering of the law.
  • These laws discouraged Asian immigration by striking down immigrants’

descent" to become United States citizens by naturalization. Thind argued that his people, the Aryans, were the conquerors of the indigenous people of India. Highlighting that his people were a "conquering people" was done to characterize Thind as being white.

  1. Why did justices have no intention for labeling him White? (p. 67) a. Aryan and Caucasian was synonymous 2. Ozawa gave hope that Thind would be classified as White a. debunk scientific evidence (buh-bye) < embrace common knowledge
  2. Two Things about Race a. race is REAL b. There is a hierarchy (Whites and non-Whites) i. Someone from India does not equal White person ii. Whites on top! >:O
  3. Use science to figure out that race is natural a. In this case, scientific evidence did not figure it out i. In fact, it put some groups in White category that didn’t belong there!
  4. Search for “subtler truth” (p. 66) a. Science designed to find truth i. By not finding truth/scientists couldn’t figure it out, it shows that RACE IS NOT NATURAL ii. Therefore, these people are E-VIL ***** Korematsu v. US (1944) Korematsu was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during WW2 regardless of their citizenship. Six of the Justices sided with the President Roosevelt , except Herbert Hoover and Owen Roberts. The majority opinion was written by Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and held that the need to protect against espionage outweighed the rights of Americans of Japanese descent. According to a report from the office of Naval Intelligence, there was no evidence that Japanese Americans were acting as spies or sending signals to enemy submarines. On the basis of this prosecutorial misconduct, Korematsu’s conviction was voided by a California district court in 1983. It was the first instance of the Supreme Court applying the strict scrutiny standard to racial discrimination by the government. With the issuance o f Civilian Restrictive Order No. 1 on May 19, 1942, Japanese American were forced to move into relocation camps. Fred Korematsu was a young Japanese-American who decided to stay at his residence and disobeying the order to relocate. He argued that Executive Order 9066 was unconstitutional and violated the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He was arrested and convicted. Justice Hugo Black found the case largely indistinguishable from the previous year's Hirabayashi v. United States decision, and rested largely on the same principle. He also denied that the case had anything to do with racial prejudice in light of the uncertainty following Pearl Harbor. extra credit: went through plastic surgery for eyes and renamed himself Clyde Sarah, said he was Hawaiian and Spanish Justice Owen Roberts
  • Dissenting, really switched
  • Internment really a different degree, much bigger
  • Basically putting them in jail
    • 5th amendment and 14th amendment, due process
    • Denying due process because there is no trial Justice Murphy “This exclusion of "all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non- alien," from the Pacific Coast area on a plea of military necessity in the absence of martial law ought not to be approved. Such exclusion goes over "the very brink of constitutional power," and falls into the ugly abyss of racism.”
  • First one to use term “racism”
  • There is a tension between roles of courts and military *Executive Order 9066 (1942) - the nisei (Japanese American-born/citizens) The president authorizes Japanese relocation. President Roosevelt were encouraged by officials to authorize the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. As a result, approximately 112,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were evicted from the West Coast of the United States and held in American concentration camps and other confinement sites across the country. Over two-thirds of the people of Japanese ethnicity were incarcerated were American citizens. In December 1944, President Roosevelt suspended Executive Order 9066. In 1980, U. S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation to create the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC). The Commission recommended legislative remedies consisting of an official Government apology and redress payments of $20,000 to each of the survivors. *Transnationalism Immigrants are going to have new experiences in their new destinies. In what ways are their destinies shaped by the political relationship they are from and political relationship and country they are going to. (How is the relationship between the US and the native country affecting the relationship and experience of the immigrants in the US?)
  1. Why is Vincent Chin being hit?
  2. economic, political, and cultural processes that extend beyond the boundaries of nation states
  3. is a social phenomenon and scholarly research agenda grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states *Hugo Black This provided the majority opinion of the court for the case. Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because the properly constituted military authorities feared an invasion of our West Coast and felt constrained to take proper security measures, because they decided that

“The strict scrutiny standard of judicial review is based on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Federal courts use strict scrutiny to determine whether certain types of government policies are constitutional. The U.S.Supreme Court has applied this standard to laws or policies that impinge on a right explicitly protected by the U.S.” *interest convergence theory This theory is related to the Cold War, when the Soviet Union broadcasted propaganda against the US. The Soviet Union tried to show how racist the US was, including the situation when diplomats from Africa couldn’t get proper service in the US (based on race and skin color). The US and its allies always had an interest in overthrowing racism. The geopolitical situation involved the government wanting to get rid of racism. There was a convergence of interest of the “White” government and the public, or those fighting against racism. The government didn’t want to look like racist hypocrites and some of the people wanted to fight against racism. Thus, these two groups had a convergence of interest. *1952 Walter-McCarran Act (aka Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952) The immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 upheld the national origins quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924. It ended the Asian Exclusion from immigrating to the United States and introduced a system of preferences based on skill sets and family reunification. The act created symbolic opportunities for Asian immigration and r epealed the Asian Exclusion Act and eliminated laws preventing Asians from becoming naturalized American citizens. The new law only allotted new Asian quotas based on race, instead of nationality. Under the preference system, individuals with special skills or families already resident in the United States received precedence. Moreover, it gave non- quota system to alien husbands of American citizens and created a labor certification system.

  • Removed bar on naturalization so now Asian immigrants can naturalize
  • Only Asian Immigrants would be identified by race and not national origin. For example, if a person of Japanese descent who grew up in Brazil wanted to come to U.S, they would be counted in the Japanese quota and not the Brazilian quota. Even if that person was set two or three generations removed from Japan. Everyone else was counted by national origin except Asians.
  • Truman vetoed the act because he saw it as discriminatory but it was overruled.
  • This was created in the early years of the Cold War, and there was a fear of infiltration of the government. *1965 Immigration Act (Hart - Celler Act) This law abolished the national origins formula , which had been the basis of U.S. immigration policy since the 1920s. During the 1960s, at the height of Civil Rights Movement, the National Origins Formula increasingly came under attack for being racially discriminatory. With the support of the Johnson administration, Senator Philip Hart and Congressman Emanuel Celler introduced a bill to repeal the

formula. The Hart-Celler Act created a seven-category preference system which gives priority to relatives of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, as well as to professionals and other individuals with specialized skills. The act maintained total immigration limits per country with provisions exempting immediate relatives of U.S. citizens from numerical restrictions. It limited the immigration from the Western Hemisphere for the first time. It added a labor certification requirement, which dictated that the Secretary of Labor needed to certify labor shortages.

  1. Why was it passed? a. Foreign policy pressures b. Cold war and International Reputation c. Domestic Pressures for Reform d. Civil rights movement highlighted domestic racism e. Existing laws tarnished the image f. Changed racist immigrant laws to stop embarrassment and references by communists to racism g. Balancing act: want to look better but didn’t want communists
  2. Preference categories a. Family preferences i. Immediate relatives, adult children of US citizens, spouses and minor children, adult children of lawful permanent ii. Reunite b. Preference to professionals i. Those with degrees c. Refugees i. Political refugee especially escaping from communist country ii. First refugee migrants were from Vietnam and Cambodia, fell to communism
  3. Effects of 1965 a. ⅔ of asian americans can trace their migration to this act b. Students with college educated parents are more likely to attend college (model minority myth) c. Law → shaped culture → material difference → race is justification *Vincent Chin Vincent Chin was a Chinese-American draftsman and engineer who was beaten to death in the Highland Park suburb of Detroit in June 1982 by two white autoworkers, Ronald Ebens (Chrysler plant supervisor) and Michael Nitz (his stepson). They blamed Chin for the success of Japan’s auto industry, despite the fact that Chin was of Chinese, not Japanese, descent. They were charged with second-degree murder and ordered to pay $3,000 and serve three years probation with no jail time. They claimed the fight was not racially motivated and said they did not use racial epithets. This case has become a critical turning point for Asian American Civil Rights Engagement and a rallying cry for for stronger federal hate crime legislation. The 1984 federal civil rights case against the men found Ebens guilty of the second count and sentenced him to 25 years in prison; Nitz was acquitted of both counts. A civil suit for the unlawful death of Vincent Chin was settled out of court on March 23,
  4. Michael Nitz was ordered to pay $50,000. Ronald Ebens was ordered to pay

***** Halladjian (1909) On Christmas Eve 1909, four Ottoman-born Armenian men received an auspicious gift from a circuit judge in Boston. Jacob Halladjian, Mkrtich Ekmekjian, Avak Mouradian, and Basar Bayentz had petitioned for citizenship in the face of government opposition and won. Judge Francis C. Lowell hadn’t simply deemed four immigrants eligible for naturalization; he bestowed upon Armenians the juridical distinction of whiteness for the first time. A few months later, Congress codified Lowell’s decision, decreeing that Armenians, along with Assyrians and Jews, were exceptions to the rule that so-called “Asiatics” were ineligible for naturalization. a Virginia anti- miscegenation law defined whites as those who have either “no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian” or “one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood”. Because of the malleability and general instability of racial categories, Armenians were able to take advantage of the blurry boundaries of whiteness, going from potential members of the “yellow race” to white persons eligible for naturalization.

1. a case (it is italicized) 2. ruled Armenians as White persons; different if classified as Asian 3. prereq case 4. relate to Alien land laws a. led to creation of material reality (compared to Japanese) b. easier for Armenians to own land ***** Ozawa

  1. Under the Nationality Acts of 1790 and 1870 , the federal law had restricted the right of naturalization to aliens who were either "free white" or of "African nativity and descent.
  2. Ozawa's was an ideal test case to bring to the Supreme Court, meeting all non-racial qualifications for naturalization set by the Act of 1906, whereby an applicant had to file a petition of intent to naturalize at least two years prior to formal application.
  3. He also satisfied the five-year continuous residency requirement. He had lived in the United States and Hawai'i for more than twenty years.
  4. Ozawa was born in Kanagawa, Japan, on June 15, 1875, and immigrated to San Francisco in 1894. As a schoolboy, he worked his way through various schools and graduated from Berkeley High School in California. He attended the University of California for three years until 1906, when he moved to Honolulu and settled down. He was fluent in English, practiced Christianity, and worked for an American company. He was married to a Japanese woman who was educated in the U.S., not Japan, with whom he had two children.
  5. In his own legal brief, he argued that his skin was as white as or whiter than the average Caucasian's, but more importantly, he underscored his personal beliefs. He was basically assimilated into American society, which was kind of a threat to the Supreme Court.
  6. Essentially, the Supreme Court struck down his case stating that skin color does not correlate with race.
  1. Majority opinion was given by Justice George Sutherland, who stated that the color test (lightness of skin) was not clear cut. Essentially, the Court relied on scientific evidence, which stated that Ozawa was classified as Mongolian and not Caucasian. ***** Sei Fujii The 1952 California Supreme Court case Fujii v. California(38 Cal 2nd 718) overturned California's historic Alien Land Act, which barred Japanese and other Asian aliens "ineligible to citizenship" from owning agricultural property. Together with Masaoka v. California, Fujii finally put a stop to decades of legal discrimination against Asians. The Fujii case also led to a serious public controversy over whether the United Nations Charter represented a legal basis for striking down state- sponsored discrimination_._ In a surprise ruling, in April 1950 a three-judge panel of the California's District Court of Appeal unanimously overturned Curtis's lower court ruling. In his opinion, Judge Emmet J. Wilson found that the alien land law was unconstitutional because it contravened Chapter I, Section I of the United Nations Charter. Attorney General Howser appealed the ruling to California's Supreme Court. In April 1952, by a narrow 4 - 3 majority, the California high court struck down the Alien Land Act. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Phil Gibson found that the law violated the 14th Amendment, since it had been created and enforced "as an instrument for effectuating racial discrimination." Fujii challenged the 1913 Alien Land Law after being released from detention camp. His case dealt with the wartime exclusion of Japanese Americans who challenged property ownership. He sued California and the 1952 Walter-McCarren (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952) act gave him citizenship. Who was Sei Fujii? ○ Japanese immigrant who was well-known figure of being publisher for Kashu Mainichi newspaper (1931) ○ Became hero who fought for justice of jap discrimination ○ Studied law but did not get license ○ Challenged 1913 alien land law after being released from detention camp ■ Uses lawyer abilities ➢ Sei Fuji v. CA ○ Wartime exclusion of jap amer of challenging property ownership (1944-1945) ○ Discouraged from returing to CA and properties prices went up higher to be difficult to obtain ○ Sued california ○ McCarren-Walter act gave him citizenship *aliens ineligible to citizenship

*John DeWitt The military general in the West coast

  1. military has too much power The U.S. Supreme Court upheld DeWitt’s exclusion order. Citing a previous case (Hirabayashi v. United States) in which the Court upheld the conviction of another Japanese-American for violating General DeWitt’s curfew order, Justice Black determined that “exclusion from a threatened area, no less than a curfew, has a definite and close relationship to the prevention of espionage and sabotage.” In support of this “definite and close relationship,” Justice Black cited General DeWitt’s Final Report, which sought to connect Japanese espionage activity to the sinking of U.S. ships by Japanese submarines, as well as “investigations made subsequent to the exclusion” (not in evidence), which supposedly confirmed that Japanese- Americans were disloyal. *The Cold War The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine (a U.S. policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism) was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. Professor: The Soviet Union aimed propaganda at the US by blaming them for hypocrisy. ("You claim to be the leaders of the free world, but look at how much discrimination there is against people of color.") This has a lot to do with explaining why the civil rights movement happened when it did: the government now had an incentive (an "interest," as in "interest convergence theory") to get rid of legal racism. *the model minority myth The belief or stereotype that a certain minority group is significantly more successful than other minority groups. This myth is attached to Asian Americans, in relation to black and Latino Americans. The model minority myth was often exploited as a way to deny other minority groups civil rights by claiming they weren’t working hard enough by comparing them to Asian Americans How did this happen and why? The 1965 Immigration Act (Hart-Celler Act) had a preference system, and some of that was for professionals. During the Civil Rights movement, the government used Asian Americans and their successes to justify African Americans being the fault for their inequality. *1964 Civil Rights Act
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88 – 352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights and US labor law legislation in the United States that

outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations"). *issei/nisei/sansei issei - not citizens can never become citizens nisei ( Wong Kim Ark) - focus on internment camps, citizens sansei - 3rd gen, factor in Civil Rights Movement, looking for oral histories of Japanese in internment camps (get nothing from parents nisei/importance of what isn’t there) *Ronald Ebens- the murderer for Vincent Chin case

  1. 1st Trial - charged with manslaughter, ordered to pay $3000 + $780 court fees. and 3 year probation
  2. 2nd Trial- found the murder to be racially motivated and sentenced to 25 yrs
  3. 3rd Trial (Appeal) - Trial at Cincinnati Ohio, cleared of all charges.
  4. Civil law suit- Ordered to pay $1.5 million to Chin’s family based on Chin’s loss of income as engineer. Worth $8 million today *Michael Nitz- the accomplice and stepson of Ebens
  5. 1st trial- charged with manslaughter, fined and 3 yr probation like Ebens
  6. 2nd trial-bear hug of Chin was not enough to claim a racial motivation- clear of charges *ACJ (American Citizens for Justice) supported the theory that existing civil rights laws should apply to Asian Americans helped Lily Chin and was created to fight for Vincent Chin’s rights and values; fought for the 2nd trial and claimed there was racial motivation united different Asian groups under the umbrella term “Asian American Community” *The Moynihan Report The Case for National Action. Said that "the gap between the Negro and most other groups in American society is widening." He also said the collapse of the nuclear family in the black lower class would preserve the gap between possibilities for Negroes and other groups and favor other ethnic groups. Acknowledged the continuation of racism and discrimination within society. Essentially, David Moynihan blamed black culture and its broken families for the reason as to why African Americans are in subordination. This was the catalyst for the MMM (Model Minority Myth), which became a backlash to the Civil Rights movement and sent a message about how Asians reached the American dream without government aid.

that race is natural because it is everywhere and unfortunately race is a social construction, but the effects of race aren’t. *In what ways are Najour and Ozawa related in the conversation regarding race and skin color? Ozawa the person stated because he spoke English and whiter than most Caucasians. race and skin color is not enough to classify to be a white person

  1. Ozawa is White a. skin color i. “I’m whiter than most of the White people!” ii. race and skin color DO NOT correlate with each other iii. light skin does not equal White person b. assimilated
  2. Najour a. Just because you are dark skinned, doesn’t mean that you are non- White b. skin color is NOT a good metric when it comes to race *What was the political context of the invention of the model minority myth?
  3. Political social context a. Larger forces in place to make it more likely (1966) i. Vincent Chin’s death b. Civil Rights Movement i. Black power demanded and wanted equal results ii. In 1966 chinese americans are moving up without the help of the government
  4. Some are suspicious of government a. Japanese stopped depending on gov’t because of internment camps iii. government said other races had only themselves to blame since the Asian community was moving forward and successful iv. Moynihan Report v. Used Asian American minority myth to “deflect” these demands from other minorities
  5. comparing them becomes tool and device *What upholds the model minority myth today? What makes it a myth today? Chinese and Japanese were making the same income as Caucasians during that time Asian households were have additional family members living with them or lived in urban areas. It's a myth today because of the immigration policy that openly oppresses.
  6. Myth a. Chinese and Japanese made same income as Whites i. problems: more people in Asian household
  7. compare individual not household incomes
  1. Asians living in urban areas not same to Whites who lived in urban areas
  2. Myth because we have immigration policy that prefers those who are professional
  3. Asians suffer quietly a. Majority of college students are Asian because of resources and intellectual capital due to the effects of Immigration Policy that preferred professionals b. *Look back at it (law) Ian Haney Lopez, White by Law , chapter 3 Questions 1 and 2: What does Haney Lopez have to say regarding the two questions he poses at the outset of this chapter? “First, what explains the nearly ninety-year lag between the legislative imposition of the “white person” prerequisite in 1790 and its first legal test in 1878?” (p. 35 - 36)
  • The 90 year lag happened because there was not many Asian Americans at the time as most sojourners. Most of these people weren’t affected here. Federal citizenship was not as important as state citizenship. Naturalization Act → 90 years before there was a prerequisite case // Naturalization State citizenship was not seen as important 14th amendment (all born in US are citizens of US) US mentioned first, then state
  • Now federal citizenship is more important
  • Before civil war, more state citizenship over federal citizenship
  • Stronger, more centralized, federal government Wasn’t as many Asian and Middle Eastern immigration
  • Chinese sojourners (1850s), didn’t want to eliminate Chinese citizenship “Second, why did all but one of the applicants petition for citizenship on the basis of a White identity, when, after 1870, naturalization was also available to Blacks?”
  • The legal citizenship for whites were well-established. White identity was fought for in comparison to black identity simply because whites were treated better. During the prerequisite cases it showed the value of being classified as a white citizen in the United States. Citizenship was available to Black people, why after Whiteness? Legal definition of Black was well-established (Africans = Black) Discrimination against Blacks → they know that Whiteness is valued and Blackness is stigmatized

Thind Case--- he has dark skin too, why shouldn’t he be classified as white like Najour? Why might race not be real? Science couldn’t agree on anything! It could’ve led into that direction because science went against it//science not telling them what they wanted to hear Science told exactly what Supreme Court wanted to hear for Ozawa case Chapters 1 and 5:

1. What is the “transparency phenomenon,” and how does it relate to the prerequisite cases? (see pages 16 - 19) a. Transparency Phenomenon: White people do not see themselves in racial terms, and this is a defining characteristic of being White i. Tendency for Whites to not think about whiteness, norms, behaviors, experiences, or perspectives that are white-specific ii. Antidote to transparency; Whites must develop “carefully conceived race consciousness, one that begins with whites’ consciousness of whiteness” iii. Afflicting judges deciding prerequisite cases iv. Professor: dominant groups don’t see the benefits and perspectives that are white-specific

  1. Example: I’m Korean American. I’m Phil!
  2. Guys/Males not as afraid as Woman/Females being more careful walking around at night
  3. Right-handed v. Left-handed v. Race is becoming less transparent than it used to be b. Courts have difficulty defining who was White i. Turned to amici briefs, encyclopedias, and anthropological texts ii. Slow to develop a defensible definition of Whiteness
  4. Frequently contradictory results
  5. Couldn’t distinguish a “White person” iii. Professor: Explains why it was so hard for the judges // never thought about it 2. How did citizenship (or lack thereof) shape the destinies of Japanese and Armenians during the era of the Alien Land Laws? (see pages 91 - 92) What does this suggest about the power of the law? a. Professor: doesn’t matter if it exists, but its power because people believe in law Armenians were classified as white in 1909 Halladjian case a few years before the Alien Land Laws took place. Armenians could own land and pass down that wealth to future generations while Asians were displaced and had their land taken away.

The law determines destinies based on “race”.

3. What is “reification,” and how is race a prime example of a concept that has been “reified”? Reification is more than the act of categorization and involves the idea of taking something not real and making it seem real. Race is an example of a concept that has been “reified” because it acts upon ideas largely through law, which leads to a material reality, which then reinforces and validates ideas. People believe that race exists, whether or not it is real. a. Professor: Reification: More than simply the act of categorization, idea of taking something not real and making it seem real i. Ex. race is concept that has been reified ii. Act upon ideas largely through law, which leads to a material reality, which reinforces and validates ideas b. People believe that race exists, whether or not it is real 4. What does Haney-Lopez mean by the following statement on page 93?: “Race is not an immanent phenomenon located only in our heads, but an injurious material reality that constantly validates the common knowledge of race.” “Race is not an immanent phenomenon located only in our heads” means that race is a social construction that is also real. It’s a type of social reality in where it is a social construction that has been reified. “An injurious material reality” means that there is a material legacy. Race started off as an idea that was reinforced by law, which led to a material legacy that further reinforced the idea of race. It is injurious because it is harmful. “Constantly validates the common knowledge of race” means that the material reality reinforces the common knowledge of race, and makes it real. a. These things track upon racial lines b. “Seem to be fundamental, seem to be” c. In a thousand ways, we are given reasons that race is natural. i. We see differences but do we acknowledge role of policy in doing so? ii. Culture is biologized d. We need a little more effort i. We don’t look at role of law in this!

  1. Much less evident ii. What happens when we do look at law? e. First part: race is not an immanent phenomenon located only in our heads i. Social reality ii. A social construction but it’s real (there’s more than that)
  2. More than social construction because people reified it f. Injurious material reality i. See it there, material legacy