Isolated cases of plague and widespread paranoia infected San Francisco. Fledgling practices of bacteriology debuted the ability to identify Petis bacteria. No longer was it the faceless enemy of the Black Death. Yet a contentious set of unknowns remained — competing medical groups clashed politically, socially, and professionally over the plague's transmission, treatment, and existence. Often to the detriment of Chinese Immigrants. Previous scholarship documented the outcomes of the plague and subsequent political battles as a vector to the construction of race, intertwining it with public health. This paper then looks at the commonality between these competing groups; the absence of critical epidemiological knowledge. It utilizes a study of ignorance, intentional or incidental, through the analysis of archival court cases, medical journals, correspondence, and newly translated Chinese newspapers. Rather than focusing on the outcomes of these battles, it shifts its focus to the underlying foundations. In this poster presentation, I then argue that the insertion of each group's respective ideology into the unknown variables formed the results of the plague; ignorantly shaping knowledge, and racist systems of policy while conversely allowing the Chinese to counteract them. Thus revealing how knowledge itself is the battleground for power.
