Oppression

[eng232]

WW1 Opression vs Current Day

Major divisions of race and class stem from the beginning of time. These prejudices,however, became more apparent in the United States since the first World War erupted. Pretty much everyone who was not a white male was oppressed in some way, shape, or form. Some of the oppressed classes were Women of all age groups/backgrounds, Homosexuals, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Latin-Americans, and German-Americans just to name a few.

For example: Japanese Americans became ostracized and bullied when the United States attacked Hiroshima, the event of "Pearl Harbor." During these years, the U.S condemned Japanese Americans in belief that they were the scheming enemy living in "their land." A lot of Japanese citizens suffered backlash, and those believed to be against the U.S government were placed in internment camps. All of this, once again, out of fear and paranoia.

Germans living in America also suffered similar discrimination when the United States declared war in Germany during the commence of WW1. They were pretty much stripped of their identity in order to conceal so-called support of their native country. All they were doing is living their lives as they used to, but Americans saw this as a threat to loyalty and national security.

A more current event that led to pre-conceived judgments of people was after the attacks of WW1. There was nationwide paranoia towards people that appear to be of Middle Eastern descent. There were also additional screenings in airports for people that appeared to be Arab, Muslim, or of some sort of Middle Eastern background. This was particularly hard for those communities that had large amounts of Middle Eastern, such as Dearborn, Michigan. People who never really had a problem with the general population before were looked at differently after these events.

As far as women, there are still many unwritten laws that make women less "important" than men. These are particularly true in leadership positions, politics, the and the medical field. It is unfortunate to see that their is still a large pay gap for salaries for women in contrast to the salaries of men. 

Same sex marriage is also a huge debate right now. People are either for it or extremely against it. Some try to defend their argument by declaring this act against the constitution and ungodly. All is see is hate against people who are not " like everybody else." What exactly is normal? The United States is one of the worlds largest melting pots. It is shameful that we still carry these negative feelings towards others simpley because of who they are.

[eng232]

Profiling: A TSA Standard Procedure

    TSA officers have admitted that fellow employees have been racially profiling minorities during security checks. A program placed by the TSA trains agents to look for suspicious behaviors and mannerisms as evidence for criminal activities. What is considered “suspicious” has led to the profiling of minorities based on their skin color, how they act, and what they wear. The agents are pressured to stop people in the hope that they will stop someone with drugs or a criminal background. Due to this pressure, minorities have been targeted believing that they are more susceptible to being criminals. The TSA has said that this is completely false and that their procedures are not vulnerable to profiling.

    The perception of certain groups has always caused troublesome situations within our country. After the 9/11 attacks, all Muslims were considered to be terrorists. Then stemming from the security concerns of the country, immigrants of all kind, especially Hispanics, were looked at as bad. The Japanese faced the same fate after the attack on Pearl Harbor. All Japanese were considered dangerous and as potential terrorists. The correlation between the two is interesting to examine. The Japanese faced exclusion within the country through internment camps while Muslims and immigrants faced it through deportation.

[eng232]

Evicted Away By The Olympics

    The Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil have the potential to displace 200,000 people from their homes on top of those already displaced by the World Cup. The people living on the land needed for the Olympics have no choice but to surrender to a forced eviction. They are being sent to remote government housing which compromises their way of life. The remoteness and unreliable transportation has faced many of them to lose their jobs. The conditions of the new homes they were displaced to may seem better than the favelas they once lived in but the reality is that they are not. At the favelas, they relied on the close proximity of their jobs to make a living. They could also build and own their home, which can’t be done with the government housing they were moved to. It has been said that the government’s methods are a way to exclude the poor from the city. The old land where they once lived is now being made valuable with the new development.

    A social injustice has occurred due to a government’s actions. In the United States, the Japanese faced the same kind of injustice. They were forced to give up everything they earned and owned and moved to a place to live where they owned nothing. Brazil faces many terrible repercussions for it’s actions, just as the U.S. did for its.

[eng232]

Black Death

    Black death, the disease wiped out 1 million people in Europe during the medieval ages, is still present today throughout the world. As many as 2,000 cases of the virus are found each year, including some in the United States. Most of these cases come from the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa. Madagascar faced a coup in 2009, and its world aid was cut off. This has led its capital to deteriorate. There is no sanitation or health system. This has also caused the capital to be a potential breeding ground and for rats and fleas, which is how the disease is contracted. The remote village of Beranimbo was origin of an outbreak that had the potential to wipe out the whole village. Once it was present, it rapidly spread to other villages because people would move and try to find help.

    The forgotten people of Madagascar and its remote villages can be compared to the forgotten Japanese Internment Camps that the world turned its back on. Due to political conflict between countries, they are letting them get wiped off by just standing by. The antibiotics that are needed to treat the Black Death are relatively cheap but the world has done nothing. The world is choosing to neglect and forget these people and the crisis what they are facing. The oppression of the Japanese has been forgotten and Madagascar’s people seem to face the same fate.

[eng232]

No Choice But Oppression

    Bangladesh is home to the Rohingya people who have had all their fundamental human rights taken away.  They live in intolerable conditions because their home country also took away their rights. They escape one hell to live in another. These people are denied rights or citizenship in their native land of North Rakhine where they have been there for many generations. To escape the torture of their country they go to Bangladesh where they are exploited and held in inhumane conditions but it is better than their homeland. These people have no place in the world. They are literally looked at like animals. What the Rohingya people brave is truly horrifying.

    That feeling that there is no place to go or call home can be compared to what the Japanese had to endure after they were let go from internment. Their original homes were taken away to live in harsh conditions and when they were let go, they had no place to call home. The United States oppressed and neglected them. No assistance or compensation for what they had to tolerate was offered. The world is full of these kinds of tragedies. Learning from these consequences can help not repeat it.

[eng232]

Learning From Ferguson

    Ferguson, Missouri has dominated the news in recent months and again has gained attention because of the lingering verdict to be announced at anytime. Michael Brown, an unarmed young black man shot to death by officer Darren Wilson, has become a symbol of what is wrong in America. It is a tragedy that the death of this young man and the ordeal happening in Ferguson had to occur for the country and world to realize that there is still a huge problem in ethnic and racial profiling. It has been seen as a major problem for some time now with the death of Trayvon Martin and other similar incidents that have occurred. Ferguson is different because even though I don’t agree with some of the tactics and destruction being used by protestors, it is necessary for someone fight to be listened to. The people of Ferguson had the guts to make their voices heard. Now, no matter the outcome, the world has taken notice that there is a problem. Hopefully it will prompt something better and a change in the world. Let’s not choose to forget like we chose to forget the Japanese Internment Camps and what was really going on at that time. If people had stood against the wrong that was occurring, maybe today would be a lot better.

[eng232]

Arizona: No State For Brown Men

    The Supreme Court has condemned Deputy Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Arizona for his tactics. Thanks to repeat incidents involving the illegal arrest of Hispanics. He and his department has been ethnical and racially profiling people. They would make traffic stops and do illegal search and seizures on people completely based on the skin color of a person. Two parties sued due to incidents that occurred. One involved the illegal arrest of a man with a valid visa. The other involved multiple stops and the arrests of two Hispanic U.S. citizens. The immigration laws passed in Arizona have been focused on creating unconstitutional laws that grant power to law enforcement to enforce immigration laws.

    Will ethnic or racial profiling ever end. People would like to believe that it will but the truth is that it will probably never end. No matter what anyone says about the subject, it is still well alive and present even years out of the Civil Rights Movement. The profiling and oppression of Japanese people during World War II was really the first time it made it illegal to be some race though. Arizona wants it to basically be illegal to be or look Hispanic or Latino. Arizona needs to look at history, especially of what happened in the 1940s, to realize that what they are doing is wrong.

[eng232]

Too Poor To Get Help

    President Obama signed the Affordable Health Act to give health insurance to the poor. Millions of these people are still left without it. Who are they? They are the poorest in the nation, many single mothers, those with low-paying jobs. The people that were suppose be helped the most are being helped the least. The problem is that the states with the poorest people are the ones that are not expanding their Medicare programs to cover all. Instead these poor people are not eligible for either Medicare or enrollment into the new health system.

    Some of these people have jobs, such as cashiers, and are contributing to the system but are denied because they make too little. Again we heave an example of the poor being denied a necessity. Why is the government not conscious about all people? The exclusion and discrimination of groups continue. This social problem is the same as excluding and denying assistance to the Japanese people of internment camps. The government has not learned from history and keeps denying and oppressing people. What needs to happen to prevent this from reoccurring? Something catastrophic needs to occur. Exclusion of people with the greatest need is terribly wrong and should not continue.

[eng232]

Prison: Vacancy For The Mentally Ill

    The United States holds the most prisoners in the world in its state and federal facilities. 1.5 million people can be found within them at any given time. In California they were overcrowded and found themselves trying to reduce this issue. Assembly 108 was passed which turned over the states power to the counties within the state. This assembly caused the release of 18,000 prisoners back into the streets. Now, this may look like it’s a problematic situation but the real issue lies on the fact that 8,300 of those 18,000 prisoners have a mental health issue and are let out in the world without help. Prisons have become the mental hospitals of today but without any help or rehabilitation practices for the mentally ill. These people are just let go into the world with very little money, no home, no medication, and no help. The United States likes to forget about prisons. If they are out of site they are out of mind but what is happening inside them needs to be uncovered and addressed. A jail is no place for someone who has schizophrenia or depression. They are being oppressed rather than helped.

    After the internment camps in the 1940s, many were let go into the world without help or even a home. After an experience like that wouldn’t they need some help instead of just releasing them? It’s hard enough for a healthy person to come back to a world that has neglected them and left them with nothing.  Some states have implemented programs that try to find help for recently released prisoners and rehabilitate them but society still needs to see that letting people go without help is not the right way to do things to address an issue.

[eng232]

Homeless Internment Camp

    Throughout the United States, there are many cities that have made it illegal to be homeless. This concept alone sounds ridiculous but what the City of Columbia in South Carolina managed to do with the homeless was appalling. About a year and a half ago, the city criminalized homelessness. It gave the homeless two options, relocate or go to jail. The option to relocate involved them leaving the city or going to a remote emergency center which is also used as a drop off point for people recently released from jail or prison. Police guard the remote emergency center and people cannot leave without permission. This “emergency center” sounds a lot more like a prison or an internment camp.

    The city’s tactics can be compared to the United States’ illegalization of the Japanese during the 1940s. Japanese people were excluded from cites all around the United States and had to be transported to internment camps. Now the homeless, some who are citizens, are being forced to out because of their social status. People should not be able to be held or excluded because of it. The United States knows that the internment of the Japanese was wrong, but now cities need to realize that it is wrong also.

[eng232]

Teens: Slaves Of Labor

    Sex trafficking in Nevada is a huge issue that people don’t really know about. Over 300,00 children are susceptible to falling into the dark world that is sex trafficking in the United States. In 2012 Nevada had 107 child sex tracking victims and increase to 148 in 2013. These children are oppressed and can be forced to have sex 48 times a day according to the article. They are being held prisoners in their own country.

    The same forced labor and entrapment can be found in the Japanese Internment Camps that once were. Many of the Japanese were forced into labor without compensation. They built many highways and roads.

    The good thing to come out of this problem is that people are paying attention to them and are starting to advocate spreading awareness. A documentary entitled “Trafficked No More” was played on every local station early in the year. It brought to light the oppression and conditions that some of these children faced. It is nice to see that people are trying to change and abolish the continuing problem. The organizations, the government, and the public have all gotten together to stop it. A lot can be learned from this example and working together can really create change to not repeat the past.

[eng232]

Water: The Poor Can Live Without It

    Detroit has been a big topic of conversation for its failure and problems as a city. One issue though can convey Detroit as a failure of human rights. In July the city started to cut off water to people who could not afford to pay for it. It quickly stopped the cutoffs due to an uproar of protest and scrutiny. In October, the cut offs started again and the people so poor that they cannot even afford to sign up for a plan to pay off their water bills are suffering the most. Children, the disabled, and the elderly are the most vulnerable and they are being denied the right to have clean water. Clean water is necessity of life. With these cutoffs, people suffering the worse are the ones at most risk to die due to the lack of clean water.

    An example of the denial of human rights and exclusion is again at play. The Japanese were excluded from their homes and denied the basic right to be free. The poor always seem to be denied the basic rights that everyone else can “afford”. Why are they always forgotten and neglected? It seems that they are not thought of because it’s there “fault” that they are poor. Just as the Japanese were excluded because it was there “fault” to be Japanese, the poor are facing the same unethical threats in our modern society.

[eng232]

Forgotten History

    A little more than a year ago the location of the forgotten internment camp named Koosikia was uncovered. Koosikia was the first internment camp where people of Japanese ancestry were relocated. Its remote location in the deep woods of Idaho and the small scale of it contribute to its forgotten place in history. The camp held a little more that 250 people from 1943 until the end of World War II when its was dismantled. The detainees were use for the construction of highway 12 and could earn 50 to 60 dollars a month for their labor. The current site has no markers that help distinguish it as a place of an internment camp. Thanks to a team from the University of Idaho, the site has found many artifacts from the time of the camp. They are now working to develop the site with signage in order to spread its awareness and won’t be forgotten.

    It is really amazing that we can forget about history so quickly. The United States knew it that these camps were wrong and today not much is talked or taught about them. The subject and its consequences need to have a greater presence in our mind so that it is never forgotten and repeated.

[eng232]

Deported To An Internment Camp

    Thousands of illegal immigrant families were being detained in the Artesia detention center in New Mexico. The center has been the center of scrutiny because of its disgraceful conditions. It was set up as a temporary hold of illegal immigrants because of an influx of them trying to cross into the U.S. The immigrants in this center were sent to a remote location and packed into tight spaces within the facility. The access to a lawyer or some help was also poor. The center also faced accusations of sexual abuse on the women staying there. The facility has since close and the detainees are being transferred to other locations. It is said that the reason behind the close was a drop in illegal immigrants crossing the border.

    This center can be called an internment camp. People were being housed in the same conditions as the Japanese during their relocation.  There are still wrongful practices that were used close to 7 decades ago. Our modern society and government still let these types of situations occur without punishment. If we have not learned from the past yet, will we ever change? Maybe it will, but only if these circumstances are acknowledged and people stand up for those who are not granted a voice.

[eng232]

China: Destroying A Way Of Life

    In only 8 years, China has relocated over 2 million Tibetans and nomadic herders from their homes into camp like conditions. Tibet is a territory under the control of the government of China. The original homes of the Tibetans were destroyed and rebuilt into row housing which was the monitored by a person inserted by the Chinese government. The reason for this inhumane and mass resettlement has been believed to be a way to forcefully change the religious beliefs and political values of the Tibetan people.  As seen in the above image, the new settlements are extremely radical to what was once. It has affected the way of life of the Tibetans who have been there for generations.

    This extreme change and mass relocation correlates with the U.S. Interment Camps of the 1940s. Both the Tibetans and Japanese were forced by a government policy to relocate and change their way of life almost immediately. The change can only be imagined to cause shear shock to those forced to leave everything they know and enter into an oppressed environment. The Chinese have not realized how harmful this relocation has been. Maybe if the world took time to look at the U.S.’s mistakes during its relocation of the Japanese, situations like this would not occur.

[eng232]

“Ebolamania”

    A Nigerian student applying to Navarro College, a small two-year institution in Texas, was rejected because they were not accepting students from countries where cases of Ebola had been confirmed. That student, Idris Ayodeji Bello, tweeted a photo of his rejection letter to show his disbelief which lead to the tweet to become viral. Ebola has been all over news media outlets throughout the past few months and has been a contributing factor to the widespread panic and fear that people have attained of it. Although there is reason to be concerned, trying to ban individuals because of where they are from is ridiculous.

    This incident can be compared to the U.S.’s widespread fear of Japanese people after the attack at Pearl Harbor. People, even some not Japanese, were forced into internment camps and oppression because of the stereotyping of their nationality. Currently, there are many people who are angry because the U.S. won’t implement a flight ban of Africa. Even if a flight ban were taken into effect, there would be no guarantee that Ebola won’t reach the country. It has already been found here in fact. If it were implemented but failed, is the next step to round up all people from Africa and isolate them in a camp? No, that would be completely absurd. Even in our society now, after close to 70 years from Japanese Interment Camps, there are still naïve and ignorant people with foolish beliefs.

[eng232]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Executive Director Kenneth Roth has said that, “during Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s reign, who led last year’s Military coup, Egypt has been witnessing its worst form of oppression in modern day history. According to BBC, Keith Harper, the US Ambassador of UNHRC said that Egypt had violated “freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association [and] deprived thousands of Egyptians of fair trial guarantees". In accordance to the way Hitler and his Nazis bestowed their power over Germany was the same. The German SS (Schutzstaffel) Police’s main job was to stop rallies and their participants in their shoes, then later come get them in their homes and punish them so they don’t do it again. Some German officials who enacted these orders at times felt bad, even to as much as letting its prisoners go as long as they pretended as if they got the punishment. Every now and then those people were helped out of the country so that both the SS officer, and its victim could escape untroubled. The Egyptian people have only wanted new leadership with the voting process articulated in a just manner. Their only problem; President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi! This was the same for the Nazis, but with Hitler in reign and the German people on his side.

#polina #humanrights #oppression #holocaust