Racism Immediately After 9–11
By: Floyd Mori
Tags: World War II, Injustice, Racism, American History, Race

Racism Immediately After 9–11

American Muslims suffered

Photo by Julien DI MAJO on Unsplash

9–11 brought a lot of misery to the United States

Many people who are young may not be fully aware of what happened on 9–11. That was a day when four terrorist attacks struck in the United States of America. It was September 11, 2001, which has become known as 9–11. There were 2,977 people who lost their lives with over 25,000 injuries. There was much property devastation with over $10 billion in losses.

Two United Airlines planes and two American Airlines planes were hijacked by Islamic terrorists. Two planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City early in the morning. Another plane was flown into a corner of the Pentagon in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The fourth plane was thwarted in its target by the crew and brave passengers. It crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. It may have been headed for the White House or the Capitol Building.

My wife and I had just returned to our home in Utah on September 10, 2011, after a trip to Japan. I was the National President on the Board of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the nation’s oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization. I had been representing the JACL and Japanese Americans at a ceremony in Tokyo to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the Security Treaty between the United States and Japan. It had been signed in September 1951. I was on a program with Japan’s Prime Minister and former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle. Since I do not suffer from jet lag, I got up the next morning and was driving to a golf tournament when I heard on the radio that the World Trade Center had been attacked. We in the JACL (myself, the National Executive Director John Tateishi, and Washington D.C. Representative Kristine Minami) decided that we needed to immediately send out a press release from the JACL. We admonished the public to NOT condemn all Americans who might look like the terrorists. During World War II, all Japanese Americans were racially profiled and looked upon as the enemy. They were unjustly incarcerated in camps because of racism, war hysteria, and a lack of competent government leadership. We did not want innocent Americans to suffer the same or a similar fate due to racism.

The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta, who was the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush, was on the television. He had called on all airplanes in the United States to be grounded. He admonished the public to be cautious and not to treat Americans who might look like the terrorists unfairly just because of their appearance. Secretary Mineta had been incarcerated as a child with his family during World War II simply because they were of Japanese heritage. President Bush said he did not want Americans to be treated as Secretary Mineta had been because of racism.

Racial profiling became an issue, and the general public reacted. There were many incidents of racism toward anyone who looked like a Muslim. Men with darker skin and facial hair were suspect. Some people were arrested and even deported. Hate crimes became quite common toward people who looked like Muslims. They have not completely let up because of racism.

Racism is an important issue because it is unjust for innocent people to suffer because of hate toward certain groups of people.

[Sources: Wikipedia, The Japanese American Story As Told Through A Collection of Speeches and Articles, www.theajapanseamericanstory.com]