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When the Spanish got here, they herded the Native Americans onto plantations called "Missions." Many Natives died of diseases and poor treatment. The Spanish and their descendants, the Californios, took over the land.
The Americans began to come in a flood after the Gold Rush. The Americans cheated the Californios out of their land and staged a revolt against Mexico. The Americans continued to persecute the Native Americans, herding them onto reservations and massacring whole tribes, including women and children.
The Americans welcomed the Chinese who came to work in the gold mines, but they only welcomed Chinese men. Chinese women and children were not allowed. California officially was on the side of the Union in the Civil War, because they didn't want slavery. The California government didn't want slavery because we had a good thing going with the Chinese and black slaves would have competed with that. Unofficially, however, many Californians left the state to fight with the South.
After the Civil War and the end of much of the gold boom, the Chinese were heavily persecuted. All the Chinese in Eureka were packed onto the train and sent south. It was perfectly legal at the time for cities and counties to pack up all the Chinese and send them off. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, which suspended Chinese immigration.
In World War II, the Japanese were stripped of their land and property and sent to internment camps. During the war, many Blacks came to work in the ship yards. After the war many Black neighborhoods became ghettos. The Black Panthers were started in California for a reason. Ditto for the United Farm Workers. There is a long and storied history of race riots in the state, including white, Chinese, Mexican, and Black race riots.
Racially motivated lynching has happened in virtually every county in the state.
Today in California there is still a lot of racism against Blacks and Hispanics by whites. There is also racism against Jews and Asians by Blacks, against Blacks by Asians, and basically by everyone against everyone else.
The KKK is still active in the state. There are chapters on the coast, in the valley, in the hills, in Northern California, and in Southern California. There are also many racist skinhead and neo-nazi groups, as well as other groups promulgating hatred.
Even as recently as 1999 synagogues have been burned in the state. Crosses are set on fire as symbols of intimidation on a yearly basis. Racist attacks happen all the time.
Racism in the United States isn't about one area or another, it's about every part of the US. Every state has a racist legacy, and we all have to own up to that instead of pointing fingers.
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