The Courage to Belong: The Legacy of Wong Kim Ark (黃金德)
Pam Koo
To celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Native Hawaiian (AAPINH) Heritage Month this article honors the life of Wong Kim Ark (黃金德), a Chinese American man born in San Francisco to immigrant parents and whose landmark Supreme Court case ruling set the precedent for birthright citizenship in the United States.
When I first learned about Wong Kim Ark I was surprised, also not surprised, he doesn’t have a more prominent place in U.S. historical dialogue. Many Asians, in particular East Asians, perpetually battle “Asian invisibility” and the model minority myth, the former a result of the latter. The myth drives perceptions of unilateral Asian wealth and success and has become such a deeply encoded, subconscious belief that legalized racism against Asians and the significant economic struggles Asian communities have borne throughout history can become hard to see. Even today, Asians have historically been one of the top communities living in poverty in New York City, a fact that surprises almost everyone I tell. We are seen without being seen – viewed as good workers but not leaders, docile individuals who won’t cause a scene or complain, absent from American mainstream media, often overlooked in the workplace, and unintentionally forgotten in the dialogue around racism and poverty.
So the seemingly obscure nature of Wong Kim Ark’s story is not entirely surprising in the U.S., where 58% of Americans cannot name a single prominent Asian American. But this article remembers and celebrates Wong Kim Ark’s story, particularly his impact on U.S. birthright citizenship and courage to belong, and considers how we think about our Kingdom citizenship and calling as Christians.
This article also celebrates the 40+ countries, such as Armenia, Egypt, and Qatar, and countless sub-cultures within Asia that are distinctly unique and not a monolith solely represented by the term “Asian”.
Following China’s economically destabilizing defeat during the Opium Wars (1839-1860), Chinese immigrants began immigrating to the U.S. during the California Gold Rush. Immigration increased in the 1860s when the U.S. offered free immigration and legal protections to attract Chinese laborers to build the Transcontinental Railroad. Early legalized discrimination took the form of anti-miscegeny laws (lasting over 100+ years) prohibiting marriage to white individuals. Chinese immigrants were exploited for their labor, paid 30% less than their white counterparts and assigned the most dangerous jobs while enduring racial hostility and physical assaults from white laborers resenting the competition.
“How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” -Psalm 82:3:
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first law banning immigration to the U.S. based on race – separating families, fueling existing racism and blatantly discriminating against a vulnerable population – it wasn’t repealed until 1943, nearly 61 years later.
“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?” -Isaiah 10:1-3a
Despite being born in San Francisco, CA Wong Kim Ark’s U.S. citizenship was rejected in 1895 on the grounds he was not a citizen and a child of immigrants, challenging the principle of birthright citizenship itself. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Wong Kim Ark’s favor in 1898, when he was just 25 years old, set the precedent for future cases and the law that stands today.
“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” -Deut 10:18
It’s worth highlighting the flagrant irony that these discriminatory anti-Chinese laws were being fabricated and enacted by descendants of THE original immigrants to the United States.
The Importance of Citizenship
Citizenship is important for practical reasons, providing structure and protection by clarifying what rules and authorities we/others around us are beholden to, as well as the rights that belong to us. Without legal protections we would face constant danger, anarchy even. Though some days it can feel as if the system isn’t doing its job too well, the scaffolding is no less there to protect.
Citizenship is also belonging and identifying. For many of us multiple cultures are part of who we are and the concepts of national citizenship and ethnic “citizenship” can be complex. Each culture I associate with is rich with meaning and history and they are intertwined with one another but unmistakably distinct – often opposing. Sometimes the dissonance between my ethnic “citizenship” and national citizenship is impossible to reconcile, especially when I experience discrimination and being “othered” in the country I belong to. But the unconscious tension we can feel because we’re multicultural individuals isn’t a bad thing, Wong Kim Ark proved that when he asserted and proved his own rights as a U.S. citizen in 1898.
True Citizenship & Calling
As Christians and many of us immigrants, God created us intentionally with our vibrancy of differences to create a rich community. Imagine all the things we’ve learned or experienced because we interacted with someone or something from a different culture (food or books, for example), without those differences we would cease to learn and stagnate. The ultimate Kingdom we belong to is incomplete without our differences.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body.” -1 Cor 12:13a
Our true citizenship is Kingdom citizenship and Scripture reminds us we’re all sojourners in this land regardless of ethnic or national affiliations, our identity and belonging is in heaven where we all bear one image, that of the Living God and our Creator.
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” -Phil 3:20
We are directly commanded to embrace the foreigner and protect the vulnerable as Christ, our true King, has embraced and brought us into His Kingdom. It is a theme repeated throughout the Old and New Testaments.
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself...” Lev 19: 33-34a
Courage
We live in a country birthed out of violence, theft, and the exploitation of labor to maximize profits. Where do we find hope?
We look backwards: 127 years after United States v. Wong Kim Ark we’re not reflecting on how long he waited for an answer, the harassment he likely faced during his judicial process, the prior case rulings that suggested petitioning the Court wouldn’t work, or an entire legal system arched towards discrimination. We celebrate Wong Kim Ark’s fortitude along with the courage of other Chinese immigrants before him who brought suit against unfair U.S. laws. We pause to be encouraged by the far reaching effects of someone who had the audacity to challenge a system wrongly designed. Wong Ark Kim couldn’t see the full impact of his perseverance, but his role in the evolution of immigrant justice will continue to unfold well beyond our lifetime. Wong Kim Ark reminds us that the burden of repeated resistance is worthwhile even when the outcome seems impossible.
We also look upwards: The creator of human life and eternal life is calling us to have courage in the face of seemingly unlikely odds – to approach hardship with boldness, to fight for the oppressed – and even if we never see the end of God’s redemptive arc, the work we do today plays a greater part than we can ever imagine in our country and God’s full story.
“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” -1Tim 6: 11-12
This AAPINH History Month I’m especially proud to be Asian American knowing that Wong Kim Ark, a young Chinese man, stood up for himself and others in the face of blatant racism and oppression. I’m hopeful that reason can triumph over injustice because we see it in Wong Ark Kim’s story and repeatedly throughout civil rights history. I’m confident in the Jehovah who reveals Himself throughout time and is too great to ever be overcome.
“For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Hab 2:3