HARTFORD, Vt. — Arriving a few minutes late, I told my students about a delay at the Interstate 91 Border Patrol checkpoint in Hartford, 100 miles from the Canada line. "Oh," a twenty-something student asked, "you mean the `Whiteness Checkpoint' ?"
His classmates didn't laugh out loud. They just snickered, appreciating an apparently well-worn joke.
"Excuse me?" I was shocked — though not by their dead-on assessment of the checkpoint.
When that barrier was first set up in December 2003, ostensibly to fight terrorism, Border Patrol agents stopped every driver to ask, "American citizen?" But long before summer, they started waving white people like me right on through. We've been more or less exempt ever since, regardless of the threat alert's color.
No, what shocked me was my students' cynical yet naive acceptance of injustice. Like me, they knew blacks and Asians who complained of repeated harassment — but my all-white students accepted the "Whiteness Check" as part of the "war on terror," even as they joked about how easily a real terrorist could detour around the checkpoint.
"So," I asked, "you don't mind racial profiling, as long as you're exempt?"
"Hey," one young lady answered, "it could stop another 9/11."
We had to get on with class, so I didn't reply.
Now the Border Patrol wants to spend $9 million to make that checkpoint permanent.
And now I wish I'd told my students that — day in, day out — I'm not afraid of Al Qaeda. I believe in America, and I don't think terrorists can defeat its free people. But I do fear what the Founding Fathers wanted all Americans to fear: the surrender of liberties to unchecked power. In the past, America triumphed over disaster, depression, and even the threat of global nuclear war, not by restricting civil rights but by expanding them. Yet today's leaders claim 9/11 somehow "changed everything." Stoking our fears to squelch dissent, they have created an unprecedented America: one in which citizens must pass internal checkpoints, can have their privacy invaded without warrant, can be detained for years without trial, and can inflict — or suffer — officially sanctioned levels of torture.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Fine post - art imitating life, or the other way around? ("24",9/11 and Islamic perceptions in the United States)
2 - gonzo marx
a most Excellent Post..
it cuts right to the Heart of the matter on so many levels...
not even going to do a point by point deconstruction...
/golfclap to williamcraig with the caveat that the points he raises here are far more important that yer students learn than whatever you were teaching in the class that day...
and to the rest of you, gentle Readers...your humble Narrator urges you to read the article again...think about it...open your eyes and look past the feel good rhetoric ...examine it in the cold light of Reason...then apply that Thought process to everyday incidents just liek it...
government sponsered "video news releases" every day in the media..NOT identified as coming form the government...that's Propaganda folks...as bad as any tin pot Dictator..
paying "journalists" with federal dollars to push a particular plan or policy...more propaganda that would do goebbels proud
all this while a single political Party controls all branches of the Nations government..bypassing "checks and balances"...same totalitarian single Party set up that Stalin had, eh?
and so on and so on...
be Awake...be Aware...be Informed..
NEVER take my, or anyone's word for it..
think for yourself!
but think, damnit!
Excelsior!
3 - RJ
"In the past, America triumphed over disaster, depression, and even the threat of global nuclear war, not by restricting civil rights but by expanding them."
So...Japanese Americans were never forced into camps after Pearl Harbor?
Lincoln never ordered arguably unConstitutional actions during the Civil War?
There was no Alien And Sedition Act during WWI?
And this ignorant, Leftist clown is a college PROFESSOR???
Typical...
4 - Tired of it
Well, its a product of our foreign policy. The fanatics in Washington want our country to have a warped foreign policy which aids terrorists in getting sympathy and funds in the middle east. This in turn means the potential of a terrorist attack. So instead of balancing our foriegn policy that doesn't offer the West Bank settler unlimited support, it will be us non-white Americans that suffer for it.
In essence, the Israel fanatic would rather change this nation and how it treats it's citizens rather than change foreign policy.
Afterall, who are the most vocal supporters of racial profiling in America? Michele Malkin, David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes, Anne Coulter....all write for the Jewish World Review.
I for one, have vowed to refuse any extra scrutiny when it occurs. Screw the Neocons and AIPAC, American citizens still have rights. Damned if I let them take it away from me. Also, since when can you apply a race to a religion? Are all Catholics white?
I am not even muslim and get treated worse than muslims because most muslims pass for Italians or Hispanic. Racial profiling for terrorism is one of the most stupidest law enforcement ideas in this country. No wonder they are clueless.
Just more and more stupidity from state and federal governments to keep this stupid foreign policy alive. I bet if we had an even handed approach over there, the terrorists would get less sympathy and funds from mainstream arabs.....Israel gives the the fuel they need....
5 - JR
williamcraig: In the past, America triumphed over disaster, depression, and even the threat of global nuclear war, not by restricting civil rights but by expanding them.
RJ: So...Japanese Americans were never forced into camps after Pearl Harbor?
I wonder what contributed more toward winning WWII: putting Japanese Americans into camps, or letting the black pilots of the 99th Fighter Squadron fly escort missions over Germany without the loss of a single bomber to enemy aircraft?
6 - williamcraig
Thanks for the interesting comments, all! Let's keep talking!
I do feel compelled to respond to RJ's delightful description of me as an "ignorant, Leftist clown": RJ, read the sentence you quoted carefully. It says we triumphed over adversities by expanding civil rights. The infringements of civil rights you cite didn't help us triumph over anything. You missed the point--- unless you believe that interning Japanese-Americans somehow helped us win WWII.
Oh, and speaking of ignorance: The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798, during the scare over war with the revolutionary French. World War I occurred much, much later, involved different bad guys, and created free-speech issues with very different legislation. But hey, stay righteously indignant: It looks good on you, and gives us all a laugh.
7 - Dan
"So...Japanese Americans were never forced into camps after Pearl Harbor?"
Some were, some commited voluntarily. Japanese spy rings were discovered, and enemy plots foiled by the internment. Also, about half of internees were of European ancestry. German and Italian. The fact that white Europeans were likewise interned is inconvienient for leftist espousers of white racist dogma, so it is ignored.
When I consider any issue of fairness, I always try to put myself in the shoes of those who percieve injustice.
If I were a minority, a recent immigrant or second generation natural citizen to a country where the majority had founded and built a relatively just, and prosperous society, then graciously extended the privilige of citizenship to me and my kind, then suffered a barbarous attack by my kind, I would see it as my patriotic duty to cheerfully accept minor inconvieniences such as border check points. Moreover, I think I would be vocal in expressing my love of Country, and condemnation for the enemy of what I would still think of as my gracious hosts.
8 - Aaman
Dan's comment is the best (or worst) April Fool's Joke today
9 - RJ
My apologies. It was called the Sedition Act of 1918, not the Alien and Sedition Act.
10 - williamcraig
Apology accepted, RJ. And please excuse my grumpiness. With so much to debate and learn, why not keep it civil? Thanks!