A rally against state Senate Bill 147,which would ban Chinese citizens from buying real estate in Texas, outside City Hall in Houston on January 23.
This article was written by Zachary B. Wolf and was published by CNN. This article is mainly about new controversial bills that are being proposed by some U.S. legislators. This new bill that is being proposed is attempting to bar Chinese immigrant citizens from owning agricultural land on American soil. Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign this bill. Countries with deep ties to this country will also be included in this restriction on agricultural land. There are several other republican states that have proposed similar bills to this one. Texas took it a step further saying that those countries should not be allowed to own any land. These are most likely due to the scares surrounding the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the recent “Chinese Spy Balloons” that have been spotted and shot down over U.S. soil.
The main point of this article is to highlight the controversy relating to the proposed bill. The writer of this article relates this back to the Japanese internment camps during World War 2 which was basically the removal of Japanese Americans from their homes to be placed in camps during the war. The reason the author relates these two subjects is because they are held by similar motives and have similar controversies regarding prejudice. They are both motivated through prejudice in a time of a homeland security threat. The journalists are very much on the side opposing this proposed bill as he relates it to past prejudice that the U.S. enforced on to a minority group.
I believe this article does not have any quantitative data. This article was more focused on the historical context to compare to modern day events to highlight the fearmongering and prejudice involved in this new proposed bill. I believe that there could be quantitative information added for more personal opinions surrounding the bill rather than from a single perspective from the journalist. It could maybe include a poll surrounding these opinions in a bar graph or another chart.
This article also did not have sources of qualitative data, but I believe, as I said before, that this article focuses mainly on comparison towards the past to fortify its main point. He does a good job of focusing on past events to show the wrongdoing in this bill. I believe the journalist could have inlcuded personal story interviews on the reactions of Chinese migrants in the U.S. to show the affect these laws have on personal lives.
I think this article relates to our class in multiple ways. First, it relates to class because it talks about historical events involved with immigration and immigrant populations living within the United States. It also talks about different immigration and migrant laws that have been passed in the United States. This article also states the Alien Land Laws which were mentioned in class in the beginning of the semester. Although the journalist does not use any qualitative or quantitative sources, I believe he does a good job of conveying the message behind the article. Even with the title of the article and stating that history does in fact repeat itself.
Source
Wolf, Zachary B. 2023. “History Repeats Itself with Anti-China Land Ownership Proposals | CNN Politics.” CNN. February 18, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/18/politics/chinese-land-law-texas-virginia-what-matters/index.html.
History repeats itself as states move to ban Chinese citizens from buying property | CNN Politics