Rich Mole,
It's misleading to compare a tax on foreign buyers to the head tax of 114 years ago. This issue isn't about race or nationality, but an influx of foreign capital in local real estate.  An influx that has grossly distorted housing prices.  If all the money being spent and speculated in the market were from local or national sources, there would be a definite limit on how high prices could go.   To question the benefit of allowing foreign capital free reign in the market isn't racist.  And since there are so many ways for this money to end up in the market, a lot of it isn't represented in "foreign buyer" statistics.