Publication Date
2024
Document Type
Book
Description
In documenting the Chinese experience in America, scholars and the mass media have emphasized the prejudice of Americans who aren’t Chinese, as well as discriminatory government policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This portrayal often implies that Chinese communities have unified for the sake of their collective survival. However, this narrative generally omits the prejudice faced by newer immigrants when they try to raise concerns about labor and working conditions within the Chinese community. This research examines unionization and labor disputes at several restaurants in New York City’s Chinatown during the 1980s and 1990s and the impact such actions had within the Chinese community. This research will draw on English and Chinese-language newspaper articles, legal documents, and videos provided by the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association to evaluate the consequences of pushing back against intra-ethnic prejudice in both the communities the prejudice directly affects and America as a whole.
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Recommended Citation
He, Yao Shen, "Navigating Prejudice and Solidarity: Labor Disputes in New York City's Chinatown in the 1980s and 1990s" (2024). Research Days Posters 2024. 83.
https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2024/83