Government officially apologized for this injustice. The reasons for historical prejudice and discrimination against Asians are complex. often involving economic or political motives. For example. at one time European immigrant labor groups felt threatened by cheap Asian labor and staged strikes and acts of violence against Asians. Employers cultivated such ethnic antagonism as a stratagem to depress wages for all workers. Asian and European. Nativists used Asians as a foil for their racist philosophies. Politicians cynically exploited antiAsian sentiment to maintain power. And the press used the "Yellow Peril". the specter of unlimited "oriental" immigration. to sell papers. But at heart. the reasons for antiAsian practices remain far simpler: Asians looked different. they had accents. they worshipped different gods. They came from cultures and spoke languages that were beyond the narrow experience of traditional. white America. Thus. Asians and AsianAmericans were targets. Unlike other contemporaneous immigrants--Irish. Italians. Poles.
Identified stereotypes
Asians looked different, had accents, worshipped different gods, and came from different cultures.