When it comes to modern equivalents, Professor Lee minces no words. She once told National Public Radio (NPR) that today’s equivalent of the Chinese Exclusion Act was Donald Trump’s well-known Muslim Travel Ban. “The fact that we don’t explicitly name Muslims [in Trump’s executive order] is more of a reflection of how our racial sensibilities have changed over the past 135 years, in terms of being more polite in our racism,” she told NPR on the 135th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

XREF: Connects to broader histories of American exclusionary immigration policy and how discriminatory frameworks adapt to changing racial sensibilities over time.

QUESTION: Does the comparison between the Muslim Travel Ban and the Chinese Exclusion Act hold up under detailed legal historical scrutiny? Worth exploring the specifics of both orders.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 749