Honoring The Egalitarian System | Chinese Americans For Equal Rights Of All Americans

Jefferson – DNA Of America

Independence Day talks about a new chapter in the history of all human beings being equal for over 247 years

The text was written on Independence Day 2023, by Wenbin Yuan

Two hundred and forty-seven years ago, Thomas Jefferson’s remarkable contribution to humanity was his authorship of a groundbreaking document that laid the foundation for the equality of all individuals in modern society. Despite living in a time marked by the tyranny of feudal lords, the oppression of people by colonial powers, and incessant wars of aggression, Jefferson, as a slave owner himself, penned the “Declaration of Independence” advocating for the equality of all men.

In 1776, during a period of great upheaval, Jefferson’s vision and ideals shone brightly. The Continental Congress appointed a five-member committee tasked with drafting a document that would profoundly impact the world for centuries to come – the Declaration of Independence. Among the members of this committee was Thomas Jefferson, a renowned lawyer, the drafter of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and a respected statesman known for his profound understanding and articulation of political theory and natural rights. His extensive knowledge of the Roman Republic and the Bible further distinguished him as an unparalleled intellect. This human right based declaration of independence becomes a watershed divide in human history to mark the modern countries from the old feudalist ones. This groundbreaking “people-oriented” declaration has influenced the course of more than two hundred years around the world, making almost all the advanced countries in the world adopt similar ideas to a greater or lesser extent, sooner or later.

Jefferson used very abstract language in drafting the United States Declaration of Independence, the most important part of which was his deep understanding of the reasons for the eventual demise of the ancient Roman republic and his determination to avoid the collapse of a new democratic constitutional republic by an elite like Caesar’s. He removed the aura of the elite through the belief and concept that “all men are created equal”, and at the same time had the ability to put the power held by the elite in a cage through the mechanism of the establishment of three powers and the power succession by election. Knowing that the Roman Republic democracy, which had prospered for nearly five hundred years, had collapsed due to the rise of great figures such as Caesar, he advocated equality for all to ensure that the president and ordinary citizens were bound by the same law because of the inalienable right of, we, the people.

Jefferson’s founding idea laid the foundation for winning the hearts and minds of the United States in the process of independence, and helped General Washington successfully defeat the unstoppable British Empire which had just entered its heyday and mastered all the new technologies of the world’s new industry, and successfully established the United States of America, the world’s first democratic constitutional system. In the same vein, he also allowed the meritorious General Washington to return to home as an ordinary person after creating this unique democratic system of separation of powers based on the equality of “we the people”. Washington’s ability to be the first who voluntarily relinquished the right to throne as the country’s founder, cannot be said to be unrelated to Jefferson’s original intention of equality for all.

American history is indeed short, but it is not shallow. Because most of the founders of the country at that time were talented all-round lawyers and politicians who were familiar with the shortcomings of the Roman republic, Greek democracy and feudalism. The founders also include a large number of politicians who were very familiar with modern science and technology of the times. Don’t forget that the founding fathers of the United States, in addition to Jefferson, many were fans and wrote a lot about ancient Greek democracy, the Roman republic, and the constitutionalism of modern Britain. Hamilton’s giant “Federalist Papers”, which brought together a large number of essays of politicians of the ancient Roman Republic. Benjemin Franklin, for example, was the inventor of electricity and wrote a large number of essays, including that “the rule of law and freedom are the cornerstones of maintaining social order and protecting the rights of citizens.” Franklin argued that the rule of law and liberty were the foundation of democracy, and that their supremacy guaranteed the rights and freedoms of citizens and ensured social order and justice. Franklin’s ideas also became the basis for a series of bills in the well-known Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, including the First Amendment, which protected freedom of speech.

Jefferson himself was considered the best mathematician and metallographic scholar of his time, was fluent in Latin, French and Hebrew, and could also calculate the time of a lunar or solar eclipse anywhere in the world. Jefferson declined to be re-elected president in his later years, and went to great lengths to re-edit the story of Bible in English, Hebrew, French, and Latin, resulting in the “Jeffersonian Bible” centered on Jesus’ morals and philosophies, and thus laying the foundation for the founding philosophy of “separation of church and state” that he preached, making sure no dominant religious doctrines will interfere with the government.

In John Adams’ “The republic requires the restraint of institutions and laws”, Adams argues for institutions and laws to constrain and balance the power of government to ensure just and equitable governance. He believed that institutional constraints could avoid abuse of power and tyranny. In “The foundation of the republic is morals and education,” Adams argues that the sustainable development of a democratic republic needs to be based on the moral character and education of its citizens. Only citizens with good morals and adequate education can effectively participate in self-governance and safeguard the public interest.

The early statements of the founding fathers of the United States also indirectly revealed why so many of the so-called democracies around the world modeled after the United States are failed democracies. Because of an independent legal system based on the equality of all human beings, the separation of government and religion and various missions (the government is not allowed to have guiding propaganda institutions), and the civic education based on morality and ethics are indispensable elements of a democratic system. Jefferson laid the DNA for America in all of these ways.

It is worth noting that while Jefferson proposed the founding idea of equality for all, he was himself a slave owner, and had more than six hundred slaves in his lifetime and had unwilling sexual relations with at least one of the female slaves. It can be seen that when he put forward the idea of equality for all, he probably mainly wanted to prevent the possible corruption and authoritarianism of the ruling elite at the top, so that the power created by the new elite could be smoothly transferred. Jefferson’s own consideration of human beings remained in the category of white men, and he did not consider blacks and women in the category of “everyone”, even during his presidency. It can be seen that human understanding of human beings has undergone a profound evolutionary process in the past two hundred and forty seven years. The various peaceful and violent movements at different times during this period, as well as the evolution of intellectual and judicial interpretations of human beings, or what is everyone, were also indispensable factors of the changes.

What Jefferson probably did not anticipate was the evolution of this concept of “all men” in the following two hundred forty seven years after he proposed it： the Civil War for Emancipation of Slaves, the Civil Rights Proclamation of 1863, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Women’s Suffrage Act of 1920, the Repeal of Chinese Exclusion Act of 1943 (RCEA), the Affirmative Action Act (AA) proclaimed through the Presidential Administrative Act of 1961, the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964-1965, the Equal Housing Act (EHA) of 1968, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, that the evolution of the series of bills were based on the principle that “all men are created equal”.

The passages of these important civil rights laws over the past 80 years since the landmark 1943 the repeal of Chinese Exclusion Act or the “Magnuson Act” reflect the evolution of the concept of “all men“: starting from the citizenship rights that who can really qualify as “all men” were only white men, evolving to include white women, then to blacks, and then to 1943, when Chinese are also included, and at the same time, the epoch-making no longer considers specific races as a consideration of qualifications for “all men“. Kennedy’s Affirmative Action Executive Order of 1961 began requiring governments and large private institutions to employ appropriate number of minorities, then the equal housing rights won through months of struggle by the people of Milwaukee, to fair access to public places in America for people with unique disabilities, until everyone has the right to use the health care. But each passage of these bills was often obtained through a long struggle and often bloody struggle of their predecessors, paving the way for later coming new immigrants. The evolution of this concept of “all men are created equal” to the point that everyone who reaches the age of 18 after birth in the United States is “all men“, has been a long evolution that Jefferson probably did not expect when he established the DNA of equity for all Americans.

Despite the vast inequalities that still exist in the United States, both in the past and present, the idea that all men are created equal has been deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of the United States for more than two centuries. Through cultural publicities, historical education, mass movement struggles, legislation and judicial adjudications, this idea has progressed towards the realization of a broader and broader range of human beings being equal. Since the past 80 years the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, significant progress has been made in human rights legislations. This progress has benefited many generations of new immigrants, as well. Newcomers should also draw wisdom from the lessons of history, be grateful for the great contributions made by their predecessors to the realization of equity for all human beings and make their own efforts to make tragic history that will not be forgotten and repeated.

Most recently, in June, the Supreme Court passed the anti-affirmative action law “Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. The University of North Carolina”. This unexpected reverse of the affirmative action law tells everyone that all human right laws are worth continuous fighting. Because if people are not careful, these hard-won achievements will be amended by the old forces, especially by the conservatives who believe that “All mem” means white men. For example, the United States has practiced Roe v. for 50 years. Wade’s abortion law was overturned overnight, making it impossible for women in many states to have abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or the danger or difficulty of giving birth for a woman.

Many people may not know that affirmative action and abortion laws are not unique to the United States, and most countries in the world, including China, have similar laws that are specific for the fair number of enrollment and employment of ethnic minorities, as well as laws that allow abortions. The newcomers’ understanding of the history of civil rights development over the past 80 years and the importance of their participation in social equity, as well as active participation in elections and voting, are essential for the equal liberty and justice for all, including the minorities and the underpreviliged.

In the past two hundred years of human rights development in other countries, the concept of equal rights for all has gradually been embodied and promoted. Equality for all in neighboring U.S. Canada is embodied in its Canadian Human Rights Act, which was passed in 1977 (exactly the same year that China abolished the birth-background-based system in 1977 to allow admission to universities based on only grades) and has been amended several times. Don’t forget that Canada also enacted the Chinese Immigration Act in 1885, which imposed a “per capita tax” on new Chinese entering Canada. On July 1, 1923, on the Canada Day, Canada implemented a new Chinese Immigration Act. The law, later known as Canada’s “Chinese Exclusion Act”, almost completely banned Chinese from entering Canada until May 14, 1947. In this regard, Canada has been closely following the United States. Of course, Canada’s progress in equality for all is also evident.

Recently, Chinese Canadian groups across Canada have reviewed and reflected on the tragic history of Canada’s “Chinese Immigration Act” similar to the US Chinese Exclusion Act and the progress of human rights in Canada over the past 78 years through exhibitions and seminars. On May 28 this year, the Montreal Chinese Federation also held a symposium on the centennial reflection of the “Chinese Exclusion Act”; A number of Chinese communities in Metro Vancouver will also jointly hold a commemorization forum in late June of 2023. Canadian Senators Hu Yuanbao and Hu Zixiu and the Chinese Canadians Joint Action Foundation also held a related event in the Canadian Senate Hall on June 23, 2023, highlighting the voice of Chinese Canadians and Chinese Americans in opposing discrimination and refusing history to repeat itself.

During the French Revolution of 1789, freedom, equality, and fraternity became slogans, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen explicitly enshrined equality for all in law, attacking feudal privileges and inequality.

South Africa, the last apartheid country in the world, also passed the Bill of Rights following the end of apartheid. The South African Constitution, adopted in 1996, established broad principles of human rights protection and completely abolished apartheid and discriminatory policies.

At the international level, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, proclaiming that all human beings are created equal and establishing the fundamental rights of citizens. Since then, many international human rights conventions and legal instruments have been adopted with the aim of guaranteeing equality and human rights for all.

Although the world is still a long way from Jefferson’s first proposal of “equality for all”, the concept of equality for all has been increasingly recognized and embodied in modern society through legislation and the continuous strengthening of international consensus. Judging from the development of human rights after the Repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the past 80 years, the United States has gradually become one of the world’s role models of civil rights and equality from the dark era of human rights before 1943. Every step forward in this process is evident and worth celebrating. For the Chinese living in the United States, it is especially worth cherishing and celebrating for each of these great advances, while remembering their fellow citizens who contributed and sacrificed to these advances. It is only by not forgetting the past that we can ensure that tragic history does not repeat itself.

The past is not forgotten, and it is our teacher for the future. Only by not forgetting the lessons of history and actively participating in current politics will there be no repetition of appalling stories such as ethnic cleansing in places like Uganda and Kosovo, or some form of Chinese exclusion law in the United States. Jefferson’s “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence became the DNA of the greatest source of happiness for the American people: enabling ordinary people to live ordinary, dignified, and enjoy basic lives among a group of people who believed in the “liberty and justice for all” rooted to Jefferson’s concept that “all men are created equal”.