What the U.S. Did to Japanese Americans Could Happen Again

This past weekend’s Remembrance Day commemorating the unjust detention of Japanese Americans during World War II reminded me of how a law school classmate of mine once questioned why I was wearing a button that read “Executive Order 9066” with an image of barbed wire.

When I explained to him that this was the order issued by President Roosevelt in 1942 ordering the illegal incarceration of Americans of Japanese ancestry as threats to national security following the declaration of war with Japan, he responded: “That was a long time ago, wasn’t it?”

His dismissiveness implied the common belief that historical wrongs won’t be repeated in more enlightened modern times. But such complacency ignores how political and geopolitical circumstances work to hide systemic racism behind the façade of national security.

Read more at The Daily Beast.