Justspeak: Ethnic mapping/racial profiling: What's in a name?
August 5, 2012
“First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because
I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist. …Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
I am always haunted by these words of Rev. Fredrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller, delivered in his last sermon before he was incarcerated by the Nazis in 1937. They are a reminder of how fragile freedom is, and a warning of what can happen to all of us when we remain silent in the face of atrocities. Our country is engaged in a battle of “rights” versus “security.” And in the name of the latter, we find ourselves standing at a precipice in which the “rights” of a few (Muslims) are deemed to be expendable for the sake of the “security” of all. Enter the new age of “ethnic mapping.”
We are told that Muslims, often portrayed to us in the media as monolithic and acting in some type of “psychic unity” in their disdain and hatred for Americans and Christianity, are a security threat. And so, we must pre-empt them in order to save ourselves. The question is who is included in the “ourselves?” Are Blacks included, even though we were once subjected to “Racial Profiling?”
Are Gays’ and LBGTs’ included or, because their lives and loves are viewed by some as amoral and an affront to certain types of Christian values, should they be excluded? It’s not clear anymore. And Ethnic Mapping seems to be another way to take bodies that are easily identifiable—because they are Black, Brown, Muslim—and find ways to monitor and contain them.
Original Post: Friday, 23 March 2012 11:24
Posted In : Policy Analysis
