California Apologies

On Friday, July 17th, the California Legislature apologized for the state’s past persecution of the Chinese immigrants who built the state’s railroads, gold mines and agriculture industry.

The Senate earlier this month approved the resolution expressing regret for 19th century and early 20th century laws that “resulted in the persecution of Chinese living in California.” The Assembly had backed the measure in late June, and the California secretary of state put it on the state’s official record Friday. The legislation, ACR 42, was co-sponsored by Assemblymen Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) and Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles).

As Time Magazine wrote on July 22nd:

The apology is the latest in a wave of official acts of remorse around the globe. In 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a similar apology, expressing regret to Chinese Canadians for unequal taxes imposed on them in the late 19th century. Last February, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to his country's Aborigines for racist laws of the past, including the forced separation of children from their parents. Five months later, the U.S. Congress formally apologized to black Americans for slavery and the later Jim Crow laws, which were not repealed until the 1960s. And most notably, in 1988 the U.S. government decided to pay $20,000 to each of the surviving 120,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned in camps during World War II. Says Donald Tamaki, a San Francisco–based attorney who helped overturn wrongful WWII-era convictions of Japanese Americans: "Part of what a humane society does is recognize past injustices and address them."

Yes, now where is Japan?

The LA Times writes about this legislation Here and the Wall Street Journal blogs Here.