(Racial) profiles in courage, or can we be heroes too?

• Author: Chang, Robert S.

INTRODUCTION

Racial profiling usually conjures up images of police officers acting on negative stereotypes concerning the criminality of people of color and subjecting them to greater surveillance and state. (1) This type of negative affirmative action is practiced by police, prosecutors, judges, and juries alike. (2) Before 9/11, an emerging bipartisan consensus denounced this practice. (3) As the arguments condemning racial profiling were gaining strength, the events of 9/11 diluted such support as terror became racially embodied in the faces of the nineteen who were accused of hijacking the planes on that fateful day. (4) Many who were hostile towards the practice before 9/11--including those from communities most often subject to racial profiling by the criminal justice system--began to say that some degree of racial profiling was perhaps necessary. (5)

While this type of negative racial profiling is problematic, it is also important to focus on positive racial profiling. (6) Following 9/11, several newspapers published photographs of firefighters who died when the World Trade Center Towers came crashing down. (7) Notably, newspapers recounted stories of their heroism. (8) As profiles in courage, these heroes also had a race and gender--they were almost exclusively white men. (9) The race and gender profile of the heroes was not an accident; rather, it was produced by the hiring practices of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). (10) The criticism of the hiring practices of the FDNY should not be taken as a criticism of the bravery and integrity of the firefighters with regard to their service as firefighters. It is important, though, to ask--with regard to negative and positive racial profiling--why are our criminals people of color and why are our heroes white? This essay explores how negative and positive racial profiling is part of the larger project of constituting this nation. (11) Part I examines a project referred to as differential Americanization as it operates during times of war or crisis. Part II analyzes the controversy over racial profiles with regard to a proposed monument to honor the fallen firefighters.

1. DIFFERENTIAL AMERICANIZATION DURING WARTIME

War, perhaps more than anything else, forces a nation's subjects to renegotiate their relationship with the nation. When the United States engages in war, it also engages in a process of deepening the Americanization of its citizens. It does this by calling upon its citizens to collectively band together to do their patriotic duty against a common enemy. By performing patriotic gestures, its citizens feel a comradeship that consolidates this imagined community that is America. It is this feeling of comradeship that has made millions of people willingly die for their nation. (12)

When the United States engages in war, its marginal citizens often find themselves in an awkward position. As a victim of state-sponsored neglect, discrimination, and terror, how do you respond when that very state calls upon you to do your duty?

In African American communities, serving in the armed forces has been debated in every war. During the Civil War, Frederick Douglass urged Blacks to enlist in the army, saying, "[H]e who fights the battles of America may claim America as his country--and have that claim respected." (13) This theme has been echoed in many other writings and speeches. During World War I, W. E. B.

Du Bois said:

We of the colored race have no ordinary interest in the outcome. That which the German power represents today spells death to the aspirations of Negroes and all darker races for equality, freedom and democracy. Let us not hesitate. Let us, while this war lasts, forget our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our own white fellow citizens ... that are fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary sacrifice, but we make it gladly and willingly with our eyes lifted to the hills. (14) He repeated this same sentiment during World War II. (15) There were of course those who were incensed and opposed Du Bois' views. (16) But the fact that two of the most vocal critics of racism in the United States would urge Blacks to join in the U.S. war effort speaks volumes. They viewed participation in war as a pathway to eventual racial uplift. (17) War, because of the opportunity it presented, was a time to put aside grievances.

For marginal citizens and subjects, war has often been thought to offer a pathway to becoming a more secure American. Whether it has proven successful for African Americans probably remains an open question in light of the persistence of racial inequality. (18) Nevertheless, not all groups are offered the same opportunities.

World War II presented a unique dilemma for Japanese Americans. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were declared "unacceptable for service in the armed forces, and they were exempted from the draft." (19) Most of the 6,000 Japanese Americans already in the U.S. armed services were "immediately dismissed." (20) Apart from the military misfortunes suffered by Japanese Americans, many who were located on the west coast region were forced into internment camps. (21) Those placed in the camps included Japanese immigrants who were ineligible--due to their ethnicity--to become citizens along with their American-born citizen children. (22)

After dismissing its Japanese American soldiers, the U.S. government almost immediately realized they had a need for "Japanese speakers for interpreters, scouts and surveillance." (23) In addition, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) lobbied to allow American-born males of Japanese ancestry to serve in the U.S. military. (24) The group's efforts included testifying before Congress (25) and participating in "negotiations among Colonel William Scobey [and] Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy ... to let Japanese Americans volunteer to fight in Europe." (26) Japanese American males of draft age were then asked to fill out a Selective Service Questionnaire that included the following two questions:

No. 27. Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered? No. 28. Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or organization? (27) The difficulty of responding to the questions was enhanced by the emotional toll of their confinement to the internment camps at the time they were given the questionnaires. Some Japanese Americans were angered by the first question. (28) What would it mean to agree to serve in the U.S. armed forces when your family would remain behind barbed wire? Some thought the second question was a trap. (29) What would it mean to forswear allegiance to the Japanese emperor when you had never sworn allegiance in the first place? Thus, an affirmative answer to this question might have been seen as a confession to an allegiance that never existed. (30) Debates raged in the camps about how to respond to the questions. (31)

The different responses to these questions were guided by what they thought it meant to be an American and how they should show their loyalty. Those who answered no to both questions were sent primarily to the Tule Lake, California camp, which was designated as a segregation center for both "disloyals" and for those who were cooperative. (32) Some responded no to the first question and yes to the second. (33) Others believed that the patriotic thing to do was answer yes to both questions. (34) Still, some went further and volunteered outright for the armed services to show their loyalty to America. (35)

Many of these volunteers ended up in segregated fighting units. The 100th Infantry Battalion was made up of over 1,400 Nisei--second-generation Japanese Americans--from Hawaii. (36) They quickly earned the nickname "Purple Heart Battalion" because of the severe number casualties they suffered. (37) Then, the 442nd all-Nisei Regimental Combat Team was formed. (38) Eventually the 100th and the 442nd were combined, (39) and emerged from World War II as the most highly decorated unit in the history of the U.S. armed forces for its size and length of service. (40)

The combined unit offered their blood to achieve "Americanness" for themselves, for their families, and for future generations. That is the bargain that is sometimes offered to disfavored minorities trying to gain acceptance from the American majority.

After 9/11, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities in the United States have become the most recent victims of racial backlash. What bargain is being offered to them? For many, their only recourse is to drape their homes, cars, places of business, and bodies with the American flag, in hopes that this positive claiming of American identity is sufficient to ward off legal and extralegal violence. In the months following 9/11, over 1,000 incidents of hate violence were reported. (41) In addition to these macroaggressions, microaggressions (42) directed against Middle Eastern and South Asian persons and communities are also thwarting their pathway to belonging in America.

Since 9/11 over twelve hundred noncitizens have been detained by federal authorities, the overwhelming majority of them appear to be of Middle Eastern and South Asian ancestry. (43) The precise number is unknown because the federal government has refused to release updated figures since November 2001. (44) Further, an unknown number remain in custody and have little or no access to legal counsel. (45) Over 5,000 males of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent between the ages of 18 and 33, who held visas from countries having Al Qaeda operations, were targeted for questioning by both local and federal authorities. (46)

Arab Americans...