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Greaser Act

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The Greaser Act was an anti-Mexican law enacted in 1855 in California, thinly disguised as an anti-vagrancy statute. The law defined a vagrant as "all persons who are commonly known as 'Greasers' or the issue of Spanish and Indian blood... and who go armed and are not peaceable and quiet persons." This discriminatory law allowed oppression over minorities living in California. The Greaser Act’s creators wrote racist language into the law of California as a way for Euro-Americans to control the new rising economy.

The Vagrancy Act, also known as the Greaser Act, “wrote racist language into the law of California.”[1] The law went by the Greaser Act because the law contained the word “Greaser,” which is found in section two. The California Law Review explains that, “the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the U.S.’s invasion of México and resulted in México’s cession of the Southwest,” which led to The Greaser Act of 1855, an end result of the Mexican–American War in 1848.[2] As elaborated by the Latino History and Culture: An Encyclopedia states, “Euro- Americans were eager to solidify their power in the region they had just taken from Mexico.”[3] Through the war with Mexico, the United States acquired: California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. As a result of their acquisition, Euro-American eagerness in establishing dominance, coupled with California’s early Gold Rush the same year, birthed legal discrimination laws against displaced Mexicans and later, other minority groups. Racial laws similar to the Greaser Act are all part of a history of anti-immigration laws. Euro-Americans saw anti-immigration as a way to racially and culturally purify themselves. Laws similar to the Greaser Act, such as the Foreign Miners’ Tax, created horrible economic and social issues for minorities.

The Greaser Act and the Foreign Miners’ Tax put people who had foreign status economically and socially behind. These laws, however, did not affect African Americans; for “their citizenship and socialization in American society as ‘native,’ were exempt from both the Foreign Miners’ Tax and The Greaser Act.”[4] They might have been exempt from these deplorable laws, because of their native status; however, they still faced “a multitude of egregious laws in their own right.”[5] The Foreign Miners’ Tax and the Greaser Act demonstrate the importance of the title of native. The distinction between ‘native’ and ‘foreigner’ played a crucial and central difference in understanding the racism experienced during the time period. The influential laws such as the Greaser Act would lead to oppression even after it underwent repeal and amendment.

The Greaser Act of 1855 would be later amended a year after its birth; however, the law was still used against Mexicans and other foreign groups. The amendment came in the form of eliminating the word “Greaser” from the text of the law, but it was still used against Mexicans.[6] Discrimination and oppression still followed: Mexicans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans even after amending or repealing laws. The stigma of ‘foreigner’ was detrimental to the economic and social life of these people. The Greaser Act of 1855 in California, and the laws that followed it, would oppress people for years, even after these laws were repealed or amended.

Discriminatory actions created by the California legislature in the 1850s socially and economically restrained minority groups. The Greaser Act of the 1850s coupled with the Foreign Miners’ Tax kept minority groups out of the growing mining economy. Though this changed over time, the discriminatory actions of the 1800s barred not only Hispanics, Native Americans, but Asian Americans as well. Today, profiling laws bar “enforcement agencies from reliance on ethnicity, color, national origin, political affiliation, language, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disabilities or medical conditions as a reason to stop or search people." [7] The Greaser Act and other discriminatory laws that followed resulted in hardships for minority groups. These laws would take time to be repealed.

References

  1. ^ Heidenreic, Linda (2015). Leonard, David; Lugo-Lugo, Carmen (eds.). 'Greaser Act' (1855). New York: Routledge. p. 218.
  2. ^ Anderson, Rachel; González, Marc-Tizoc; Lee, Stephen (2006). "Toward a New Student InsurgencyA Critical Epistolary". California Law Review. 94 (6): 1902. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  3. ^ Linda, Heidenreic (2015). Leonard, David; Lugo-Lugo, Carmen (eds.). 'Greaser Act' (1850). New York: Routledge. p. 218.
  4. ^ Sekhan, Vijay (2003). "Civil Rights of 'Others': Antiterrorism, the Patriot Act, and Arab and South Asian American Rights in Post- 9/11 American Society". Texas Forum on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights. 8 (1): 138. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  5. ^ Sekhan, Vijay (2003). "Civil RightsCivil Rights of 'Others': Antiterrorism, the Patriot Act, and Arab and South Asian American Rights in Post- 9/11 American Society". Texas Forum on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights. 8 (1): 138.
  6. ^ Heidenreic, Linda (2015). Leonard, David; Lugo-Lugo, Carmen (eds.). ’Greaser Act’ (1855). New York: Routledge. p. 218.
  7. ^ Colon-Navrro, Fernando; Salinas, Lupe (2011). "Racial Profiling as a Means of Thwarting the Alleged Latino Security Threat". Thurgood Marshall Law Review. 37 (5): 9. Retrieved 10 April 2015.

Sources

  • California Statutes. Chapter 175 (1855)
  • Ronald Takaki. A Different Mirror (pp. 178, 457 fn. 32), Little Brown & Co. (1993)
  • Tomas Almaguer. Racial Faultlines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California (pp. 57, 228 fn. 36), University of California Press (1994)
  • Steven W. Bender. Excerpt, Greasers & Gringos: Latinos, Law & the American Imagination (NYU Press), 2003.
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