History of Asian Americans - Brittany Le - Christine Sivilay - Mollie Frager

" Spot The Terrorist " Let i Volpp THE C I T I ZEN AND THE TERROR I ST

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The decline of the nation - state have led to unfortunate implications when two points are stretched to extremes 1. The idea that immigrant communities have complete agency in determining their location and their national identity2. The idea that the borders of the nation can be transversed with the greatest of ease and are so reduced as to become almost meaningless

We should remember that the idea of transnationality is not solely one where immigrants function as agents in maintaining diasporic ties , but can be one where a state or its people brands its citizens with foreign membership We function not just as agents of our own imaginings, but as the objects of others' exclusions.

There have been more than one thousand incidents of hate violence reported in the United States Before September 11, national polls showed an overwhelming public opposition to racial profiling

Other people of color have become “ American ” through the process of endorsing racial profiling Racial profiling only occur when certain groups of people have indistiguishable members who are fungible as potential terrorists

Many of those who are racially profiled in the sense of being targets of hate violence or being thrown off of airplanes are formally citizens of the US , through birth or naturalization But they are not considered citizens as a matter of identity, in that they in now way represent the nation

Not all terrorist are persons who appear “ Middle Eastern , Arab , or Muslim Individuals who are benign profiled are not considered to be part of “us”

In American imaginations those who appear “Middle Eastern, Arab, or Muslim” may be theoretically entitled to formal rights but do not represent the nation. The consolidation of American identity takes place against them. It seems as if the guarantees of citizenship as status, rights, and politics are insufficient to produce citizenship as identity. The lack/failure of identifying people who appear Middle Eastern, Arab or Muslim, ruins their ability to enjoy citizenship as a matter of rights, in the form of being free from violent attack. Race has fundamentally contradicted the promise of liberal democracy, including citizenship.

Not All Citizens Are Equal