Correlation of Discrimination and Treatment in the USA
Introduction
Numerous events have occurred in the past that have led to the discrimination and marginalization of various populations of the world. Religion, education, war and other socio-cultural aspects of society have led to the development of perceptions and stereotypes against various world communities. The world over, for example, developed a negative attitude towards the Muslim community after the numerous terrorist attacks that had been plotted and accomplished in the name of the Islam religion. Every society in the world has developed a specific stereotype towards a specific individual, community or other social and cultural aspects of life, and this has always had a precise reason or cause. Historical injustices that continue to haunt the world even today have been instigated due to a number of reasons back then.
Thesis
This paper critically analyses and clearly brings out the existing and well known correlations of discrimination and ill treatment against various groups that live and stay in the United States of America. Various injustices, accusations and false accusations have been made against a number of America populations with the Cold War and the communist terror used as a justification. The paper compares to events; the Japanese treatment after the Pearl Harbor and the labeling of Americans as communists after the cold war. The treatment that is accorded to Muslims and other Arabic groups after the9/11 attack will then create a clear comparison and insight to the whole issue about discrimination in the USA.
The Communist during the Cold War
The United States government feared that a sizable number of the Chinese living in America could be convinced by the Red china back then. The U.S government then took the Chinese immigrants (including accounts of Chinese-Americans who had been assimilated) into cold war narratives as evidence of the superiority of liberal democracy. The American government and society used the Chinese- Americans as objects of proving a point. In as much as they were rewarded with citizenship or powerful positions, their social standing was also compromised. Their social standing was being affected in the sense that the value of the Americans of Chinese origin was tied to their dual identity. Their foreignness is what gave them value as Americans. In a way, they were reduced to being a symbolic gesture, and their importance only came in when the war between communism and liberal democracy was being discussed or argued. They were seen only as a means of mitigating the influence of the then Red China. In actual sense, the involvement of the Chinese-Americans in the cold war was reduced to serving as representatives of the nation and state during the period of the cold war. This community faced a number of severe consequences - one of them being that, after the federal government was informed that numerous Chinese- Americans were spies, the government took to surveillance of the Chinatown and terrifying campaigns that advocated for policing the Chinese - American immigrants. In essence, the Cold War saw the isolation of the Chinese-Americans because of the political ideologies back home. However, these stereotypes about all Chinese people being communists were misguided; they were fuelled by the popular media through film and print sources.
The American-Japanese after Pearl Harbor
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor back in 1941, the immediate response of the government was to place Hawaii under martial law and then shift their attention towards the Japanese-Americans who lived in the west coast of America. Intelligence had it that Japan had recruited spies, and most of them were in this area. A roundup was done on aliens and those considered to be dangerous were taken to detention camps. Travel bans and curfews were imposed on all the Japanese-Americans in the west coast. The Japanese living in America during this time had it rough. The president gave the military power to designate zones for national defense purposes, two months after the attack. This order saw the eviction of over a hundred thousand Japanese-Americans move to assembly centers. These centers served as their homes for months before they were sent to internment camps. The deplorable conditions in the assembly centers greatly affected this Japanese-American group considering that they had been forced to leave their homes. Living in these centers meant that they were under military control and the reason behind all this was just because their mother country had attacked the United States of America. The intelligence might have pointed out the issue of spies, but this did not warrant the drastic measures and steps that the American government took. The profiling of the Japanese people is yet another pointer of the way in which some stereotypes ingrained in the society can be injurious to the people. Innocent Japanese suffered the spy tag even when they had no business spying the U.S. Some of them had been assimilated into the society, and it was wrong to profile them on the basis of their country of origin.
Muslims after 9/11
Muslims have been a part of the United States from way back during the enslavement of Africans. They have been a part of this society ever since then, but today a change has happened. The change is in the form of awareness that the American non-Muslim public has been fed with. In real sense, nothing has changed; the same Muslims that arrived in slave ships centuries ago are still the same ones today. The real challenge is finding out the cause of the shift and sudden awareness that the American non-Muslim society holds towards the Muslim society living in America. American-Muslims today face numerous challenges and hurdles and this is in the context of the U.S society after 9/11. Muslims in the United States are discriminated against due to fear that has been cultivated around Muslims for being associated with terror attacks.
The Taliban group in Afghanistan has always been of threat to the United States of America, but that (in the past) has not changed the perception or compromised the relationship that exists between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans. However, when the threat was finally done at home, the American nation was shocked and caught unawares. The people that claimed to be responsible were Arabic and majorly subscribing to the Islamic religion. The perception of Muslims in the United States drastically changed and they were now seen as the enemies within. Students of Islamic or Muslim affiliation have severally reported having been abused and prejudiced due to their religion. The sense of fear and uncertainty has been created around Muslims and most of them create relations and social groups according their religion. The open arms they were accorded a few years back does not exist today, the reason being Americans now see them as threats; this can be proven at the airports. Individuals of Muslim origin entering an airport with luggage are searched more thoroughly as compared to non-Muslim Americans. The fact that certain perspectives about particular people of groups continue to be perpetuated is wrong because it is akin to profiling people on the basis of the their race, gender, ethnicity and religion.
Conclusion
A keen analysis and deep deduction of the facts regarding all the mentioned events and the associated or resultant discriminatory treatment cannot be ignored. The fact that specific groups have come to be negatively stereotyped and discriminated is totally true. A deduction made objectively from just the numerous clear evidences that sort of accuse certain groups of certain acts in the past. When an act, deed or vice is committed by a person of a particular affiliation in terms of religion, culture, origin or race, generalizations are often made against that group of people. A society will always be quick to generalize and accuse a group of related or associated people collectively for any act they perceive wrong. Being the street judge of social morals and standards, the society has resulted into the victimization of not only individuals not directly linked to an act, but also to generations of people. A good example is the treatment accorded to Muslims not just in America, but in the world over after the 9/11 incident. Years on, and the Muslim community still bears the burden of guilt of that particular act. The acts of pointing fingers of blame in a way shift the attention from the real problems and issues, and this may be the reason societies still do that. An effective way of dealing with historical injustices is through peace and reconciliation; a method that is yet to be fully exploited. The world should move away from the culture of profiling people on the basis of their origin, religion and such characteristics aimed at placing people within certain psychological categories that lead to discrimination.
Bibliography
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