B.won higher wages for railroad workers C.did not have the support of the public at first, but as the strike (and its violence) spread, so did public sympathy for the strikers D.ended when the workers, who lacked organized bargaining power, returned to work E.began when Irish workers refused to work alongside Chinese Next, we should pay reparations to the descendants of Chinese laborers who were treated badly by railroad companies in the 1860s. California Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, is the author of AB 3121, which would create a task force to recommend appropriate slavery reparations and determine who should be eligible to receive compensation. In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, let us view in retrospect the controversial topic of Irish slavery in the Caribbean. ancestors of black slaves? What about Chinese getting reparations as there was a Chinese Exclusive Act and many Chinese railroad workers were never paid overtime? Utahans are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The Chinese community in B.C. I think that the reason why the Chinese migrant laborers have become associated with the railroad and not black workers is associated with our perception of history. These indentured laborers, derogatorily called "coolies," became a prime target for criticism in the mid-19th century. L. … From the railroad history: Early 1880s – Around 15,000 Chinese workers are recruited from China to ... that Canada strongly consider paying reparations for the Chinese Head ... build Canada’s railroad in the 1880s. Immigration Patterns. Building a railroad is no big deal for them." Early Chinese railroad workers struck for equal pay and for the right to have Chinese cooks boil tea water to keep them from the killer parasites that decimated white railroad workers who drank from the crowded mountain streams. Who should ve entitled to reparations? Skip to comments. What about Mexicans who have also faced racism? If we pay reparations to African Americans, are Native Americans entitled to a broader reparations program? Their descendants want history to acknowledge this contribution. Nine out of 10 workers on the transcontinental railroad were Chinese. He was right and the job got done. A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. If anything, we should pay reparations to the Native Americans and descendants of the Chinese railroad workers. Jim Thurber Los Altos Hills. Another article on the Chinese railway workers which made up 90% of the workers building the railroads. This Oped News article originally posted in 2008 (first reposted in 2015 on Global Research), skims the surface of a complex historical process which has been the object of critical debate, controversy and confusion. The Chinese workers were highly regarded by the Railroad Barons of the day and, as one of them once said, "the Chinese built the Great Wall of China. Finally, all the white people in America should leave for Europe and hand the keys to the U.S. to representatives of Native American tribes. For 94-year-old Alain Rogier, who lives in Sherman Oaks and was deported to Auschwitz on the French railroad, the reparations would be a boon in … Let's get reparations for the Irish and Chinese who were treated worse as indentured slaves and railroad workers than most African slaves ever were. To the editor: How about including Native Americans, Chinese railroad workers, early Filipino farmworkers and other groups into consideration by a commission on reparations? The same wealthy capitalist scions owe reparations to Native nations for the robbery of land and enslavement of their peoples. The US government will need to pay reparations two white indentured servants who also served on the plantations along side the blacks. Those Chinese construction workers on the Central Pacific Railroad should be honored and cheered today, just as they were by the railroad officials on the day the rails were joined, and their feat memorialized as it was in the famous painting of the event, the A.J. I googled it, and found nothing but round about web sites, that didn't really answer my questions. Chinese railroad workers were abused, discriminated against and in some cases murdered; America's freight travels the rails they laid down. So is the virtual enslave-ment of Chinese railroad laborers and other immigrants who were worked for pennies from dawn to dusk until SO WHERE is the reparations … Reply. 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