Talk:White Act of 1898

	Transport portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Transport, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TransportWikipedia:WikiProject TransportTemplate:WikiProject TransportTransport articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Maritime task force (assessed as Mid-importance).

Organized Labour Mid‑importance

	Organized Labour portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Organized Labour, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Organized Labour on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Organized LabourWikipedia:WikiProject Organized LabourTemplate:WikiProject Organized Labourorganized labour articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Law

	Law portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Law, an attempt at providing a comprehensive, standardised, pan-jurisdictional and up-to-date resource for the legal field and the subjects encompassed by it.LawWikipedia:WikiProject LawTemplate:WikiProject Lawlaw articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Etymology of the "White" Act[edit]

I've been furiously querying every legally available and cost-free database of knowledge my computer can access, but I've made no progress at digging up the origin of the name "White Act". I assume the answer is one of the two following scenarios:

- "White" is someone's surname; presumably referencing the politician who introduced, authored, or campaigned significantly for the Act's passage.

- "White" is not a proper noun, and thus the name can be assumed to derive from racial connotations.

The first explanation would wrap up the investigation quite simply and mundanely. The second opens an interesting can of worms that would seem to imply that the Act was engineered to selectively protect a specific racial group. This finding would necessitate some follow-up investigation on the specific racial dynamics of the shipping industry and to the Pacific coast at large. Within the context of the subject matter as it relates to semantics (e.g. the word "Shanghaiing"), this seems like a question that would be of interest to the average reader.

Oh and FYI, all the current source references that don't require a library card are broken links or have had the relevant content removed.

2601:2C6:4A80:68F0:C5F7:2EB2:4F7:E97D (talk) 22:38, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]