Blogging from Shanghai, part 18

The DREAM Act. The children of early Chinese immigrants to the United States did not have a very warm reception in the public schools. The San Francisco public schools would not allow Chinese kids to enroll. When Mamie Tape, a young girl who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents, tried to enroll, she was turned away. Her case (Tape v. Hurley, 1885) went before the California Supreme Court, which held that the state education code required the school district to allow her to attend school. Rather than allow Mamie to attend the white public school, the district actually developed a separate school for Chinese kids. Of course, this “separate but equal” notion was endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1892) in public accommodations, and even in another case involving a Chinese student, Gong Lum v. Rice (1927). Not until Brown v. Board of Ed (1854) did we begin to see a chipping away at lawfully segregated schools.

Much of the idea about these early efforts to exclude Chinese from white schools was simply a method of excluding Chinese students from the education system. Today, we see the same intent in the attempt to exclude undocumented children from K-12 programs (Plyler v. Doe, 1982) and Proposition 187 in 1994. Fortunately, the Supreme Court would not stand for it in the Plyler case. But efforts to exclude undocumented college age students from college is essentially riddled with the same ill-conceived and evil-hearted intent to keep groups of folks uneducated.

Excluding or making it difficult for undocumented students to attending college is dumb. These are highly-motivated members of society who are not leaving and have much to contribute. Not educating them just hurts our entire society. When we educate them, they can contribute much more. The Chinese in America eventually were able to get educated and prove that they could contribute to the country. We should realize that by educating undocumented students, allowing them to become part of the mainstream through an adjustment program, and letting them roll up their sleeves to help out in the economy and society, we will all be better off.

We need the DREAM Act.

bh