Friday, October 10, 2003

The Chinese Golf Exclusion Act of 2003?

Former LPGA tour professional, Australian Jan Stephenson, damns Asians for ruining the LPGA marketability (emphasis mine):

'This is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians are killing our tour. Absolutely killing it. Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak.

'We have two-day pro-ams where people are paying a lot of money to play with us, and they say hello and goodbye. Our tour is predominantly international and the majority of them are Asian. They've taken it over.'

'If I were commissioner, I would have a quota on international players and that would include a quota on Asian players,' Stephenson told Kessler. 'As it is, they're taking American money. American sponsors are picking up the bill. There should be a qualifying school for Americans and a qualifying school for international players.'


Hmmm, not bad, 2 for 2 on the stereotype meter and, hopefully, an unintended reference to the days of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (original text here). Perhaps I need to live in the Golden Mountain without my family, who are back in the motherland, just like the old days:

During the 1870s, an economic downturn resulted in serious unemployment problems, and led to politically motivated outcries against Asian immigrants who would work for low wages. In reaction to states starting to pass immigration laws, in 1882 the federal government asserted its authority to control immigration and passed the first immigration law, barring lunatics and felons from entering the country. Later in 1882, the second immigration law barred Chinese, with a few narrow exceptions. Imperial China was too weak and impoverished to exert any influence on American policy. This law was originally for 10 years, but was extended and expanded and not repealed until 1943, when China was our ally in World War II. However, only 105 Chinese were allowed in legally each year, so the exception process actually continued into the 1950's. Chinese were not on a equal immigration footing with other nationalities until immigration laws were completely rewritten in the mid 1960's.

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