Let me be clear from the start, the internment of 110,000 Japanese American citizens and residents is not exactly the same as the recent effort to stop the construction of mosques in Manhattan and elsewhere in the nation, but it is on the same spectrum, just like bigotry, prejudice and ethic hate are on the same spectrum.

It is one of our nation’s greatest shames that we interred our fellow citizens without any due process and merely because of their ethnicity. In the words of President Regan in the official apology was done in a fit of

“race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership”

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"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The conditions were shockingly similar to the ones that are driving the Radical Right to insist that a community center two blocks from the Trade Center Plaza (where the Twin Towers used to stand) is somehow a victory terrorists. Let’s try a little experiment, see if you can tell who said the following:

"A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched… So, a Muslim American born of Muslim parents, nurtured upon Muslim traditions, living in a transplanted Islamic atmosphere… notwithstanding his nominal brand of accidental citizenship almost inevitably and with the rarest exceptions grows up to be a Muslim, and not an American… Thus, while it might cause injustice to a few to treat them all as potential enemies, I cannot escape the conclusion… that such treatment… should be accorded to each and all of them while we are at war with their race

The executive order Obama released today effectively rescinds rights the Supreme Court previously extended to over half the people in America. What a cruel and bitter joke identity politics has played upon us all. Today America’s first person of color in the Oval Office robbed a greater part of our neighbors of their rights than any President since the Great White Fathers in their White House made war upon the First Peoples. Hey – at least Obama’s consistent. He’s the finance and insurance sectors’ faithful servant. The Hamilton Project chose their candidate wisely.

For all practical purposes, Obama’s proposed executive order effectively rescinds rights the Supreme Court has extended to over half the people in America. What a cruel and bitter joke identity politics has played upon us all. America’s first person of color in the Oval Office is ready to rob a greater part of our neighbors of their rights than at any time since the Great White Fathers in their White House made war upon the First Peoples.