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Jia Lynn Yang Profile picture
Jia Lynn Yang
@jialynnyang
Deputy National Editor @nytimes. Author of ONE MIGHTY AND IRRESISTIBLE TIDE: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965, out now via @wwnorton
Jun 14, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD: The history of American immigration law can be useful for understanding race in this country, because it reveals how the U.S. imagines its national identity over time—who can count as American, who can't. nytimes.com/2020/06/13/sun… And in this history there is an unmistakable constant: a desire by many to keep America a white, Protestant nation. In 1924, strict ethnic quotas codified this, passed as a backlash to the number of Jews and Italians coming in. This law was a triumph for race-based nationalism.
May 21, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
For anyone in the mood for a wild story about fate and love, the strangest thing just happened in our home. I’m doing a virtual event at Politics & Prose for my book tonight.

And my mom just remembered that 20 years ago, I wrote a glowing piece about Politics & Prose for my high school newspaper.
May 19, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Four years ago I started working on a book. That book is out today and I want to pause to explain how wild it is to me that this is happening at all. 1/ I didn’t think I was going to be someone who would write a book. I adore editing, never want to stop. And I thought only a certain type of person wrote a history book—certainly not me. 2/
Apr 21, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
As we await more details on Trump's immigration move, a bit of history on a key moment 100 years ago when Congress debated a total ban on immigrants.

Like now, it was a time of national upheaval and unrest. The idea failed, but the debate around it changed America forever. 1/ This is Albert Johnson, arguably the most influential journalist-turned-politician in American history. He was a night editor at The Washington Post who moved out to the Pacific Northwest, where anti-Asian and anti-labor sentiments ran high. 2/
Apr 10, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Think this is my first byline in The New York Times, based on my book coming out next month.

@andrewyang recently said Asian-Americans should respond to racism by showing "our American-ness." He reminded me of another Asian-American who argued this. 1/

nyti.ms/2XtvuE3 Meet Mike Masaoka. After Japanese Americans families were forced into internment camps 80 years ago, Masaoka convinced the Pentagon to allow a unit of second generation Japanese Americans to fight in WWII. 2/