Immigration (thread 12), Episode 2: The Chinese Must Go: Dennis Kearney’s Ugly Slogan and a Nation’s Tangled Fear

In this episode we meet Dennis Kearney, a working‑class demagogue who turned real economic pain into a simple, dangerous slogan: "The Chinese must go." It’s a sharp, ugly slice of history about how frustration gets redirected at neighbors instead of the powerful.

Listen to how Kearney mixed real grievances with scapegoating, helped fuel the Chinese Exclusion Act, and yet was proven wrong as Chinese Americans became integral to the country he railed against. It’s a sobering reminder that loud certainty can do real harm — and history often has the last laugh.