MFAW-VT faculty member Rahna Reiko Rizzuto’s article on the Supreme Court decision travel ban, which is expected this month, and Hawaii’s history in resisting the US government’s racist exclusionary policies during World War II has been published on Salon. Here’s a sneak peek including headline:
Hawaii’s fight against Trump’s Muslim travel ban has long roots of resistance
As SCOTUS prepares to rule on Trump v. Hawaii, a reminder that Hawaii stood up for Japanese Americans in WWII
“Today, 75 years later, racism is still rampant, and still a smokescreen for greed. All the horrifying treatment of humans that is playing out in our daily newsfeeds — within our own country and at our borders — is based on the same triggers, and the same arguments. Today’s monsters are still people of color, immigrants, people who don’t speak our language. They are still born from our worries about our safety and our fears that there is a lack of jobs and money and that there is not enough for us. As we twist ourselves in knots to erase or justify our actions (turning off body cameras, claiming to be protecting child refugees while we build new for-profit prisons for their parents), it is worth remembering that our safety does not come from threatening the safety of others. Quite the opposite. Our fears imprison us all. Racism is taught; it is deliberate. And until we can see through the lie that we are each other’s enemies, we cannot follow the money and the power to understand who our teachers are.”
Terrific article, Reiko. It reminded me of stories my mother told me about when she and her family lived in Philadelphia during WWII, which at the time had a substantial German-American population. She remembered as a girl seeing how badly these people were treated. Of course, they weren’t interned or incarcerated like the Japanese-Americans were — no doubt because they were white, and thus less “other.” I did not know that Hawaii had taken that braver path all those years ago. I pray that similarly today many states or organizations or just groups of allied people find those braver paths, wherever they may be, and walk them boldly.