Smallpox, Fear & Racism During 1800s San Francisco

• Timeline
• Slide Deck
• Activity 1 (Mapping)​
• Activity 2 (Texts)
• Activity 3 (Art)

Activity 2: Racial Scapegoating in Texts

learning objectives

Students will be able to:

• Understand and analyze textual primary sources from a variety of sources/authors
• Identify author’s position and how the position is supported, including the rhetorical strategies used 
• Understand how Chinese residents and Chinatown were viewed and scapegoated by officials and other residents of San Francisco during epidemics in the 1800s

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In this activity, students will be reading and analyzing three excerpts on the Chinese and Chinatown in San Francisco during the smallpox epidemics of the 1870s and 1880s. Two use racist stereotypes to argue that the Chinese in Chinatown should be discriminated against as part of public health policy, while one defends the Chinese passengers and argues that they have been unfairly treated.

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Activity Instructions:

Step 1 (5 min)
Distribute the hand-outs (download here) to students and explain the historical context behind the primary sources. These three excerpts discuss Chinese and Chinatown in San Francisco during the smallpox epidemics of the 1870s and 1880s. 

Step 2 (15 min)
Instruct students to read these excerpts and think about their purposes in relation to the Chinese in San Francisco by answering the following questions on the worksheet (reproduced below for teacher reference). You may use the rhetorical triangle to guide student analysis. 

1. What is the author’s background?
2. Who is their intended audience? 
3. What adjectives are being used to describe Chinese people? What do they mean?
4. What are the different actions being suggested in these excerpts? If the passage does not suggest a particular action or policy, what do you think the author would want to do based on their statements?

Step 3 (10 min)
Split students into pairs and instruct them to share their answers to these rhetorical analysis questions, then analyze the texts using the guiding questions on the worksheet (reproduced below for teacher reference):

1. What is the author’s motivation and intended impact?
2. What tools or strategies did they use to make their argument? For example, did they use descriptive language? Comparisons? Generalizations or stereotypes?
3. How convincing do you find these strategies? Why?

Step 4 (3-5 min)
Bring the students back together as a class and introduce the concept of “scapegoating.” Scapegoating occurs when a person or a group of people is targeted and blamed for a bad event/thing without merit. For example, the Chinese were scapegoated in the 1800s smallpox epidemics even though there was little evidence that they were the cause of the disease outbreaks. Scapegoating a particular racial group occurs frequently and often reflects racist beliefs and prejudices, which can lead to harmful consequences such as unfair treatment and violence.  

Step 5 (8-10 min)
Lead the students in a discussion of racial scapegoating using the below questions:

1. What did you see in the documents that might show why the Chinese were scapegoated? How might politicians from that time have benefited from this move? How might people outside of the Chinese community have received this? 
2. Where else have you seen people use racial scapegoating? 
   1. In the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese and other Asians have been scapegoated for spreading the coronavirus. What similarities do you see between what is happening now, versus during the 1800s? Do you see any similar language being repeated?
3. What are the impacts of scapegoating?

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Vocabulary List:
Unscrupulous: Dishonest, not having morals 
Treacherous: Disloyal, betraying or tricking someone
Sanitary: Clean, germ-free
Concealed: Hidden
Distilling: To make very concentrated or strong
Contaminate: Make dirty 
Atmosphere: Air
Alien: Different from, not belonging
Promiscuousness: Being amoral, having many sexual relationships
Ventilation: Breathing, the circulation of air
Unaccountable: Can’t be explained
Stench: Bad smell
Plague: Sickness
Quarantine: Separating from other people to prevent the spread of disease

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