The Wasp — 1877 — page 302: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1877 *Wasp* cartoon depicts anti-Chinese sentiment in San Francisco. The central figure appears to be a white workingman striking a caricatured Chinese person with a club or pipe. The sign references "The Chinese Question"—a major political controversy of the era regarding Chinese immigration and labor competition. The cartoon satirizes violent nativist sentiment by depicting the assault as justified action against the Chinese. In the background, additional figures observe, suggesting public complicity or approval. The exaggerated racial caricature and the framing of violence as "the first blow" reflect the intense xenophobia that characterized late-1870s California, when anti-Chinese agitation was escalating toward the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882). The imagery endorses discriminatory violence through satire or straight advocacy—the *Wasp's* exact intent remains unclear from this page alone.