The Cable Act(1922)

The Cable Act effectively revoked the U.S. citizenship of any woman who married an Asian alien. At the time of the law's ratification, Asian aliens were not considered to be eligible for U.S. citizenship based on their color. As a result, the Cable Act only reversed some of the previous policies, allowing female citizenship to women who married non-Asians. The Cable Act effectively revoked the U.S. citizenship of any woman who married an Asian alien.

The Cable Act was simply a regurgitation of the fears that white society had of Asian American integration. The threat of the ‘Yellow Peril’ had two interpretations: the threat of oriental domination by war and the threat of the ending of the white race through race mixing. Many scientists at the time believed in eugenics, and argued that the white bloodlines were highly susceptible to contamination. Lothrop Stoddard a famous eugenicist at the time, held that white blood, particularly from the “Nordic” races of Western Europe, was the most advanced. He also argued that because Nordic blood was so highly specialized, it was most at risk of contamination. Stoddard feared the extinction of Nordic blood by the “rising tide” of the colored races.

Many dominant beliefs at the time antagonized the integration of Asians. For example, one perception of Asians were that they carried diseases-one of the main reasons why Asians were held accountable for the wide spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the burgeoning brothels in San Francisco. Mixing of the races was deemed taboo, so much so, that anti-miscegenation laws were even passed to forbid interracial interactions like a romantic scene or kiss in films. Interracial marriage was deterred in every spectrum of life from popular media to US legislature.

All in all, the Cable Act bolstered the popular idea at the time that asians were exotic ‘forbidden taboos’ and social/physical deviants to white society. The Cable act was just merely another attempt to prevent interracial interaction and to protect a pure white society.

-Calvin Wong