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The Japanese-American Relocation
I recommend the movie "Under Seige" for the movie exploration of this with Arab-Americans. (Check the copyright date).
That relocation was the culmination of many years of anti-"Asiatic" aggitation by the Hearst papers and others. Many of the interned folks found they were alllowed out of the camps away from California, many were sponsored out, some joined the military. Many found their material goods gone and their lives derailed when they tried to return home, and many found they had good neighbors who helped them during their absences. It would be virtually impossible to perform that sort of maneuver nowadays; we're trying variations of it with INS, Border Patrol and with Iraqi and Afghani conflict detainees with mixed success.
posted by
majroj
on June 29, 2008 at 8:55 PM
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John Mcnabb, it is easy to apologize for or forebears' mistakes.
Real guts will be an accounting and payout on the native american monies fraud we're looking at in USA, and to dissolve the BIA tomrrow (we can prorate the dept's budget and give the rest of the dedicated money to the NA's themselves as "seed money").
I think my first or second post to this blog is about that subject
posted by
majroj
on June 29, 2008 at 8:47 PM
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majroj
With the Japanese-Americans, majroj, wouldn't the same thing happen again if the US was invaded? The aboriginals' only fault was that they lived on land that the newcomers wanted. Just last week, Canada apologized for wrenching aboriginal children from their parents in the early 1900's so that they could be educated (in the accepted sense of the word in that time).
I must admit to disagreeing with this 'apologizing' routine. When does it stop, when Eve apologizes to Adam for stuffing an apple down his throat?
posted by
johnmacnab
on June 29, 2008 at 6:39 AM
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I think that I will name this generation The Replacements....
as mine would be named the Savers.
posted by
benzinha
on June 18, 2008 at 2:34 PM
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Re: Enough said or enough amending?
Benzinha, all it takes is for some of the houses to start getting worn out, someone sells or rents, then the neighborhood starts peeling liike old woodwork. Who wants to put moneyinto a house in a "declinging neighborhood" when they can move to a new dreamhouse...sorta like dumping the spouse for a new one because it isn't exciting anymore.
posted by
majroj
on June 8, 2008 at 6:31 PM
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Enough said or enough amending?
Cuz, if you are not the downtrodden and squished into the dirt, then everything seems to be equal by now.
But if you are confined in ignorance, poverty and futurelessness within your own perception of life's real plans and you are or feel maintained there as much as possible, well then, amending feels like it is still necessary. Immigrants possess hope, which poor Americans have lost, no matter how often Jessie Jackson begs us to keep it alive.
As America "sorts itself out" like the book says, and as I have observed, well, how much easier it becomes to ignore reality from the pristine view through the gates of your sorted, sanitized and safe enclaves.
It's the kind of living that brings on revolutions or revolutionaries in other countries.
When I visited my 'sorted' youngest son today in his new home, waaaay outside of town in the newer houses just going up on golf courses and circling false lakes (in this desert, for Pete's sake), I saw no litter, no poor, no raggedy cars, no broken down cars on roadsides, no graffitti, no lost pets, no nada, just order and real quiet.
It takes a few generations for that peace to fall apart, one and one half or two, I think.
In the meantime, those taxes paid are for them alone and we in the inner city can rot more quietly now, thank you.
Our city is beginning to Name neighborhoods and offer them free newsletters and things to give them a feeling of cohesiveness, but still a sorted cohesiveness. I resent it. I am a Tucsonan and so are all the rest of us hereabouts.
Some parts of town are just blotches on the online crime maps of the city proper.
Uh Oh, you got ME started. Darn !! Enough !!!
posted by
benzinha
on June 8, 2008 at 2:32 AM
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John mcnabb, not really.
The native Americans of the various tribes and nations were rounded up from an aboriginal state, sometimes forced to live with their enemies (remember, the unified concept of "Native Americans" is very recent and not rooted in older native concepts), and granted a sort of semi-autonomous status, including their own police and civic bodies, etc.
Japanese-Americans were rounded up from their modern occupations and homes, sent to collection points (often race tracks or stadiums), then forwarded to their camps. No autonomy as the Indians have had it, no educational opportunities, no casinos, no ability to leave until things settled down and people started asking "why not?". Then they could be sponsored away from California, Oregon, and Washington. Then when the coast was clear they were released, often to find their homes and businesses and possessions gone.
Both unpalatable but not equal in the sequel.
posted by
majroj
on June 6, 2008 at 8:39 PM
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majroj.
Understood, majroj. The 're-location' part I understand very well. All I have to do is drive past a nearby 'reservation.' There's a good word for you.
posted by
johnmacnab
on June 6, 2008 at 7:33 PM
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