The first piece of legislation passed by the newly formed California government was the “Chinese Exclusion Act” which among other things,

“prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years… The Act also denied Chinese residents already in the US the ability to become citizens and Chinese people traveling in or out of the country were required to carry a certificate identifying their status or risk deportation. It was the first major US law implemented to prevent all members of a specific national group from immigrating to the United States, and therefore helped shape twentieth-century immigration policy.”

Let’s not just limit it to native Americans and Californios(native Mexicans who lived in California before it was stolen), that racist core of the US has been there since day 1. A contributing factor to a lot of the westward migration in the US was that “lower ladder” white immigrant national groups like the Irish, Italian and others who were bottom rung on the east coast could move West and finally have someone further down the ladder to kick.

This is one of the sustaining reasons for racism in general used to manipulate groups who feel tenuous control and power in a society; give them a line about an “other” group, tell them they’re better than that group and wham, you have folks ready to kill to preserve their perception of a precious advantage in society–when of course in reality they’re no better and in fact worse off as the weak fall or rise together.

If you are interested in learning more, the history of California is incredibly useful as a proxy to understand why certain legislation, perceptions and other things still alive in the US that propagate racism exist. Look at immigration quotas the US sets for different nations for example; much, much higher in predominantly white, western European nations while Asia (see California influence), despite MUCH larger populations are allowed lower numbers of immigrants/refugees, visas, etc.