Don’t Make the Same Mistake Twice
Post September 11 America has been predominated by an overarching sense of fear – fear of terrorists, fear of another attack on American soil, fear of Al Quaeda, and fear of the unknown. It is easier to deal with fear when it is possible to associate a “face” with the threat.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese Americans, especially on the West coast, were considered a threat to national security. Because of the physical distinctions of Japanese people, it was possible to identify and thus discriminate against them. Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, prohibited those of Japanese ancestry to live on the West coast because of a fear of Japanese American loyalty to Japan. This order was the closest America had come to institutionalized racism and segregation since the days of Plessy v. Ferguson. The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians was established by Congress in 1980 and determined that Japanese Americans were victims of discrimination by the federal government. Japanese American internment went against the very principles upon which this nation was founded, violated the civil rights and liberties of law-abiding American citizens, and was vowed never to be repeated.
Heightened public awareness of homeland security has made the American people aware of their Middle Eastern enemies. Racial profiling has become an unfortunate by-product of the sense of fear pervading our nation. It is important that we as a nation do not project our apprehension of the unknown onto our Muslim American citizens because of their physical resemblance to known Middle Eastern adversaries. The war in Iraq, the fight to build a democratic nation out of the tyrannical anarchy that currently exists there, must be led by a nation that exemplifies acceptance and equality. To allow fear to lead this nation, to target Muslim Americans through institutionalized racial profiling, would be to forsake our founding fathers and repeat one of the greatest embarrassments in United States history.
The fact is, everyone who is being honest with themselves makes assumptions and snap judgments about people based on physical characteristics. Those characteristics could be anything from race and gender to the way a person dresses, body art, or a popped collar.
As comedian Mitch Hedberg once said, “Why do people always associate long hair with drug use? Why can’t long hair be associated with something cool, like an extreme longing for cake. Then strangers would see a long-haired guy and say, ‘That freeloader eats cake! He is on bundt cake!’ Mothers would say to their daughters, ‘Don’t bring the cake-eater over here anymore. He smells like flour. Did you see how excited he got when he heard your birthday was fast approaching?’”
Assumptions based on a person’s physical attributes are a fact of the human experience. However, it is the assumptions that are being made that need to be examined. As a nation of tolerance we should exemplify that acceptance by adopting a national policy of the equality that America is supposed to embody.
With peace and love,
Maureen
