In 2013 I published a book entitled The Chinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us about America. Let's just say we have yet to learn any of those lessons, & right now are being "led" by folks explicitly arguing we should actively forget them. Here & always, I disagree. @hcrichardson.bsky.social
Ben RailtonI know it was 4000 news cycles ago, but earlier this month the administration released a 162-page attack on the Smithsonian, featuring an argument that the Chinese Exclusion Act wasn’t based on racism. That pissed me off. My new column on the white supremacist hate & violence that built to the Act.🗃️