This combative assertion of race-based victimization is not as productive toward the conversation as people may think. Indeed, it tends to drive a great many pe

This combative assertion of race-based victimization is not as productive toward the conversation as people may think. Indeed, it tends to drive a great many people into defensive positions where they hunker down. I grew up in Omaha, the end of the transcontinental railroad that Californians tend to forget about. I'm very sorry that so many Chinese immigrants died working on the railroad. I am also saddened by the many others who died, even though they were not immigrants of Chinese extraction. I'm also saddened by the atrocious conditions these immigrants escaped in China and compelled them to the US (I assume they did not desire to come to the US, and it's worth noting many no doubt landed elsewhere). While the CRPP may have preferred Chinese labor, I do not find evidence that they did "most of the work". Indeed, the main employer of the Chinese was the CRPP, which laid 690 miles of the 1912 miles of track. The Union Pacific labor was primarily sourced from the remains of the Union and Confederate armies. It is correct that 80% of the CRPP labor force was eventually (not initially) Chinese. It is also correct that the CRPP laid 36% of the rail by distance. First order approximation would suggest that the Chinese fraction of the built distance is between 15 and 29%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroa... https://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/brief-history.html https://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/brief-history.html