Peril, Pandemic, and Crisis: Asian American Studies - Alexis Desany - Carter Lawton - David Wiley

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Guilty by Association Since September 11, 2001, the United States has waged a war against terrorism, creating agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security to prevent attacks such as 9/11 from happening again. But this war’s other side effects such as racial profiling have become a huge dilemma in this country, which has led to wrongful arrests and police stops, resulting in the death and incarceration of many innocent minorities. The spike of racial profiling since 9/11 has caused a division among white Americans and “others” who often appear to be Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian. This was apparent when President Bush’s secret service member, who was of Middle Eastern descent, was asked to leave the plane based on racial profiling. Most Americans in the United States would attribute terrorism in the US to the Muslim influence and the Middle Eastern population when in reality the majority of terrorist attacks in the United States are from domestic terrorism. Attached below is a graph from the Center for Strategic & International Studies showing the huge disparity between foreign and domestic terrorist attacks. Even though this year less than five attacks took place (compared to over 50 violent far left and right attacks combined), fear of foreign attacks and Islamic terrorism is as high as ever. This is an overlooked fact as the emphasis is on foreign terrorism especially in the Middle East.