Vincent Chin and Post-9/11 Victims: Travesty of Justice

Among the minorities, people with an Islamic religious viewpoint are treated differently throughout America. A dark day in United States history,

If there is one day I dread most upon its arrival, it would be 9/11. Sure there was an immense amount of strength as a nation represented, following the terrorists attacks, but it also brought a great amount of grief and sorrow. I remember watching videos of innocent people jumping from windows in the twin towers hoping to escape the terror. These people believed there was no one to help and no one to help them. They lost hope. In “Remembering a Hero, 15 Years After 9/11” written by Peggy Noonan, published in The Wall Street Journal on September 11th 2016, Alison Crowther—Welles Crowther’s mom—recalls the courageous actions to save the lives of others, made by her son on this horrific day. Noonan utilizes pathos, ethos, asyndeton, and

America’s history is overrun with oppression and injustice based on race, ethnicity, and other traits that innocent victims have no control over. As a result, the reputation of the United States is forever tainted by it’s dark past, and still practices these surviving habits of hatred. Civil liberty issues faced since the establishment of the country have yet to be resolved because of the ever-present mistreatment, corruption in positions of authority, and the dehumanization of minorities.

George Hall a Californian white man, murdered a Chinese immigrant in front of his peers. Hall was arrested and convicted to murder, following the law. However, Hall appealed claiming that he should be set free since Chinese shouldn’t even be allowed to testify. The case went to the Californian Supreme Court, and overturned his conviction supporting Hall. According to the court Chinese immigrants were “Indians.”

America, a land that prides itself on being “the great melting pot”, and “the land of opportunity”, oftentimes exemplifies everything but that. Over the years, a vast majority of immigrants have migrated to America and assimilated themselves to American culture. In Moustafa Bayoumi’s novel, “Rasha”, he describes the turmoil some families face when trying to immigrate into America. In the novel, Rasha was arrested, thrown in jail and detained for three months just because she was a Muslim. While immigration is portrayed as a way to a “better life”, the truth is that families just like Rasha’s still encounter discrimination that challenges American ideals such as freedom of religion and equality.

September 11, 2001 is a date in history that changed the lives of people from all over the world and especially the lives of Americans. On this day nineteen militant men associated with al-Qaeda, an Islamic extremist group, hijacked four airplanes and carried out multiple suicide attacks on different locations in the United States. Two of the planes directly struck the World Trade Center located in New York City, one of the other two planes hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the final plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its final destination. On this day, more than 3,000 people were killed including over 400 first responding police officers and firefighters. In recent years as people look back on that day it is remembered as a time when the country was joined together by grief and showed an overwhelming amount of comfort and support to the victims and their families; it was also a time of extreme national pride. People also remember that following the attacks the economy suffered tremendously, in addition, air traffic which makes up a portion of the economy was greatly disrupted, both of which created uncertainty about the security of the financial markets critical to the success of the United States. What most people do not remember is the immediate backlash and hostility the Muslim and Arab communities received following the attacks by both civilians and the media. This is a topic that has been largely ignored by the public and media’s

“America the land of opportunity, to all” has always been a driving force for many people from poor, undeveloped societies far away from America. This simple saying has brought over millions and millions of people from they’re native countries, leaving behind families and friends. Some never to return. Once in America, reality sets in for most of these groups as that suffer thought unequal treatment, racism and discrimination. One such group involved similar treatments were the Chinese- Americans, in the documentary “Becoming American- the Chinese Experience” we are given a first hand looks and descriptions of the hate that Chinese- American suffered in America. This paper will discuss these events including the documentary and class notes, further it will also describe the difference treatment that Chinese- American face in present day compared to the past.

America’s recent ban on immigration and the President’s proposed Muslim registry are reminiscent of the way in which Americans treated Japanese-Americans in the early 20th century, particularly with the internment camps. In light of such recent events, it is necessary to analyze history while considering current-day events to avoid the repetition of America’s shameful past. The public backlash against the Japanese-American forced evacuation and internment was limited at best, often due to differing priorities for segments of the population or a lack of willingness to take action. While most whites did not speak out, some with decent public influence did but refrained from taking action; other minority groups, in acts of self-preservation,

On September 9th, I went to the 9/11 vigil to see what it would completely consist of, but I never would have thought I would have gotten the stories that I did. Going into the event, I expected a normal honor of all that perished during the attack on the world trade center. What I got, was an extremely personal story from President Rob Manuel about his experiences on the attacks. Little did I know, that our university president was basically an eye witness on these attacks. The majority of the vigil consisted of his story about his day leading up to the attacks, during the attacks, and after the attacks. He talked about how he was dropping off his child for daycare for the first time. Then, he went into depth about how he was close

Since the beginning of time there has always been the prosecutor and the accused. People being targeted by the U.S because of their beliefs, looks, gender, sexual interests, ethnicity, but overall because of being different. For example,the salem witch trials of 1642, the chinese laborers of the 1920’s, Mexican-Americans of the 1930’s, Japanese americans of 1940’s, the red scare in the 1930’s , gay community of the 1980’s, muslims in the 2000’s and nowadays the new targets are the illegal immigrants. Sadly, there are many more examples of people being targeted by the U.S.

On September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers associated with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda attacked the United States. They flew two planes into the World Trade Center and also attacked the Pentagon resulting in the deaths of 2,996 people. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi Arabian, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Lebanon, and one was from Egypt. Following the 9/11, racial profiling in the United States resulted in people of Arab or South Asian origin being targeted in the United States as they were perceived to look similar to the Islamic terrorists of groups such as Al-Qaeda. The racial profiling of Americans of Arab or South Asian descent has led to their rights, guaranteed to them by the U.S. law and Constitution have been violated, which is a grave injustice..

During the BBC documentary, that shed light to what truly takes place behind the walls of the facility, an American citizen’s heartfelt message to President Obama to continue with the commission hearing to seek justice she stated “you must purse justice for the 3000 victims of September 11th and I ask this in my son Justin’s memory”(Portillo). Justin’s mother’s heartfelt outcry, shown in the documentary, to the President and to the United States government that justice has still not been reached for the deceased or their loved ones. This is a reminder to those that even for a second consider closing this facility that these three thousand people that lost their lives not only were robbed of the opportunity to live fulfilled lives, but also to take part in the lives of their loved ones. The pain that the nation went through during this time has ran deep throughout the nations core and this pain has been reflected in countless efforts to avenge the death of the ones lost during this attack and to prevent others like it. If we were to take the approach of releasing the prisoners we would not only be releasing criminals back into the worlds’ society, but we would also be neglecting the feelings of many Americans.

Since the start of American history, immigrants came here and brought their traditions and cultures with them. The United States is a country of immigrants. It is a place where people from all over the world come to build a better life. Some immigrants bring their families. Others come alone with nothing but determination. Racial discrimination against minorities and immigrants is an underlying problem here in America today. Racism is seen in our daily lives when people are discriminated against because of their race and ethnicity. Racism attacks the right to a person’s well-being on the basis of something they have no control over. They cannot change nor should want to change who they are. Racial discrimination is not as bad as it was fifty years ago, but it still a problem here in our country today. Our country has advanced tremendously as far as modernization and technology, but has not improved on the way we treat minorities and immigrants. From African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Arabs there is a form of discrimination against these group of minorities.

The agonizing terrorist attacks of September 9th, 2001 left the country in emotional distress. The United States of America decided to prepare for tragic attacks like this and reevaluated its immigration and foreign policies, the citizens of the US also became united and stronger from these attacks. This ideology that the US has become more united after an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people has become mainstream and may be true in some cases, but many people overlook the impact it had on the millions of Muslim Americans. The Muslim generation before us had its own problems dealing with racial discrimination and hate crimes, many people believed it stop their but this contempt was passed on to my generation. The discrimination I have received has caused me to change my aspirations in order to ensure that no one else receives the treatment I had gotten.

It is common for one not to recognize or have picture of how his/her own community or country is viewed, Joanes gives a case of Sep 11, 2001 when radicalized Muslim religious group attacked New York and Washington D.C. was the case an explicit approach to appreciating ethnicity, race, religion diversity and globalization? If