I am often amazed at 

how 
little 
people 
know 

about Executive Order 9066 
(deemed Japanese Americans 
as a threat to national secu-
rity and allowed President 
Roosevelt to move them into 
camps), if they have any idea 
of it at all. Sometimes they’re 
even more distraught when I 
say that we have locked peo-
ple up in of the many atroci-
ties that the United States 
has committed. Yet this is a 
history that many Japanese 
Americans will never forget. 
While my family arrived here 
post-Japanese internment, it 
still is a scar that lays heav-
ily on my mind and my com-
munity. This is a scar that is 
never left alone — it is picked 
at, made red and inflamed 
every time the United States 
bans people from our country 
or locks them up for the sake 
of “national security.” While 
some may say national secu-
rity is a necessity, I say that it 
is a way that the government 
has been able to excuse atroc-
ities and misuse the bodies of 
those they deem dangerous 
for capitalist gains. 

In the case of Japanese 

internment, Japanese Ameri-
can men were only allowed 
out of camps if they agreed 
to fight in the United States 
Army 
and 
become 
canon 

fodder for Uncle Sam in 
World War II. Their choice 
was either to fight for the 
country 
that 
criminalized 

them for their racial iden-
tity or remain locked up for 
an unforeseeable amount of 
time. 
Japanese 
Americans 

were even forced to complete 
a “loyalty questionnaire” to 
determine their American-
ness and whether they would 
be allowed to leave the camps 
(or sent to more strict pris-
ons). The term No-No Boys 
was used to identify young 
interned men who answered 
no to the questions “Are 
you willing to serve in the 
armed forces of the United 
States on combat duty wher-
ever ordered?” and “Will you 
swear unqualified allegiance 
to the United States of Amer-

ica and faithfully defend the 
United States from any or all 
attack by foreign or domestic 
forces, and forswear any form 
of allegiance or obedience to 
the Japanese emperor, to any 
other foreign government, 
power 
or 
organization?” 

When I first learned this, 
I couldn’t help but wonder 
what my answer would have 
been. If I would have been 
defeated 
enough 
to 
sign 

myself away to a country that 
despised me, or potentially 
lose any sort of freedom in 
the future. In some ways this 
is the kiss of death promised 
in the American Dream. Will 
you accept all of the ugliness 
of this country and its hatred 
for you, for the chance to sur-
vive? For a shot at the indi-
vidualistic, “pull yourself up 
by the bootstraps” mentality 
that the State seems to wor-
ship?

The legality of people in 

the United States has long 
been contested as well as 
what the State is able to do 
with the bodies of its citi-
zens. Now more than ever, 
the ghosts of past atroci-
ties seem like greater warn-
ing signs to people of today. 
While 
Japanese 
American 

internment may have fallen 
into some of the more for-
gotten shadows of American 
history, its legacy remains. 
This legacy of xenophobia, 
fear of the other and fabri-
cated foreignness of anyone 
who is not white has been 
woven into the fabric of this 
country. It is not new and it 
never will be, as Ocean Vuong 
said “Some people say history 
moves in a spiral, not the line 
we have come to expect. We 
travel through time in a cir-
cular trajectory, our distance 
increasing from an epicen-
ter only to return again, one 
circle removed.” Detention 
camps and the human rights 
abuses that happen there are 
not outliers or brief failures 
in American morality, they 
are a continued pattern of the 
intentional destruction the 
United States deems as other. 
And so often, we are taught to 
forget that such a thing has 
happened before so that the 
same violence can be prac-
ticed again.

The Middle East is the global 

West’s favorite foreign policy 
puzzle. Endless commentators 
and journalists alike aim to 
fit narratives that the Middle 
East is weak, and that imperi-
alist nations such as the Unit-
ed States have a duty to save 
the Arab World from itself. 
Fueling the political agenda, 
numerous 
politicians 
have 

honed in on efforts to “bring 
peace” to the Middle East, 
with the latest attempt being 
President Trump’s treaty. A 
treaty that has been lauded 
by liberals and conservatives 
alike, 
between 
imperialist 

UAE and colonial Israel. This 
American 
infatuation 
with 

Middle Eastern politics is not 
lost on Arabs like myself and 
each take is more nauseat-
ing than the next. Whether 
reflecting on 2011 during the 
Arab uprisings or focusing on 
current politics surrounding 
each nation and its relation to 
known adversaries like Israel, 
I am continuously dismayed 
by each twisted belief stated 
by the media and political 
elite. There is a false assump-
tion that the Middle East can 
not govern or save itself and is 
solely dependent on Western 
interference for its survival-
interventions that have argu-
ably caused the majority of 
the issues in the Middle East. 
It’s the white savior complex 
on steroids, and unfortunately 
this mindset and its detrimen-
tal effects have wreaked havoc 
in the region while affecting 
the mainstream American per-
ception of the Arab World and 

its inhabitants. With oriental-
ist roots and an education sys-
tem geared toward the erasure 
of settler colonialism both 
abroad and in North America, 
Western perception of the 
Middle East has been manipu-
lated to ensure that the Middle 
East never truly has peace.

In almost every impression, 

the Middle East is painted 
with a broad brush. Absolute-
ly stupefying to have to state, 
it’s critical that I clarify that 
though nations in the Middle 
East are meshed together geo-
graphically, this does not mean 
that each country faces the 
same issues. The Gulf region — 
an area encompassing nations 
like UAE, Qatar and Saudi Ara-
bia — has in no way suffered 
similarly to other countries in 
the Arab world, as they, along-
side the West, continue to 
exploit the rest of the Middle 
East for monetary and politi-
cal gain. Nations like Syria, 
Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, 
and Lebanon — though all 
impoverished — face varying 
crises, whether they be civil 
wars, famines, occupation or 
American-backed corrupt gov-
ernments. Another affronting 
assumption is that the Arab 
general public agrees with the 
governments of their coun-
tries, an idea that is blatantly 
false. The Middle East does 
not have a single democracy, 
and the general public does not 
have a fair say in their politics. 
Using Israel as an example yet 
again, it is often claimed that 
citizens of Saudia Arabia, the 
UAE and Bahrain are in agree-
ment with their governments 
who recognize the Zionist 
state. Such claims have been 
proven false as studies sug-

gest the majority of civilians 
are angered by their countries’ 
support of a nation they deem 
colonial. The Middle East, 
like every other region has 
nuance, but due to the failures 
of Western education systems 
and targeted political destruc-
tion, it is painted as having the 
same issues, when in actuality, 
issues strongly differ depend-
ing on the country.

In regard to our educa-

tion system, the way the West 
frames issues in the Middle 
East is alarming. Time and 
time 
again, 
marginalized 

groups have rightfully com-
plained that the American 
education system, including 
higher education, has a domi-
nant 
Eurocentric 
narrative. 

We often hear about issues 
like slavery, colonialism, impe-
rialism and other forms of 
explotiation through the lens 
of Western perspectives. The 
system, rarely, if ever, men-
tions the Middle East or its 
history, and if it does, it only 
discusses its failures. Rarely 
discussed when analyzing the 
roots of a troubled Middle 
East are the flawed borders 
in the Arab world created by a 
drunk Churchill and his allies, 
or Britain’s role in cultivat-
ing Israeli settler colonialism. 
With a purposeful framework, 
our history classes and politi-
cal agendas have presented a 
seemingly frail Middle East; 
one that can only ever appear 
anti-Semitic, 
fraught 
with 

Islamic terrorism, war torn 
and unable to solve its own 
problems.

Courses at the University 

of Michigan are surely not 
immune from this horrific 
framing. As a student studying 

political science, I have heard 
awfully misguided opinions 
on the Middle East — opinions 
that lack a true understanding 
of the region. For instance, I 
have heard horrifying notions 
that the Iraq War was valid, a 
war that decimated a region 
and slaughtered the lives of 
hundreds of thousands. I have 
had to listen to long lectures 
about 9/11 and that the attack 
justifies the Afghanistan war 
— a war that the U.S. is los-
ing and has led to the callous 
murders of civilians and alien-
ation of a region. Mentioned 
in a variety of contexts, 9/11 is 
also spoken of in courses unre-
lated to politics and history as 
classes, like my basic French 
course, continue to emphasize 
narratives that victimize the 
West as the West continues to 
oppress the Middle East. Even 
though 9/11 was a tragic attack, 
multiple tales of terrorism 
were spun that solely depict-
ed harm to white populations 
while conveniently leaving out 
that most victims of “radical 
Islamic” terrorism are Mus-
lims and Middle Easterners 
themselves. I have listened to 
the justification of American 
forces in the Middle East and 
the nullification of Palestine 
and sentiments that Palestine 
is a terrorist state and Israel 
is the only “democracy in the 
Middle 
East,” 
purposefully 

excluding Israeli Occupation 
of Palestinian lands. Every 
single issue that relates to the 
Arab world gets its one-sided 
analysis, often leaving those 
affected daily by these topics 
lost and aching to respond.

What 
makes 
a 
vicious 

cycle even worse is the pro-
hibitions that keep me from 

using my voice or speaking 
from experience, so to defend 
these ignorant narratives in 
the classroom, for if I do, I 
am overwhelmed by scrutiny 
from my peers. If I condemn 
American imperialism in the 
Middle East or emphasize the 
corrupted 
justifications 
for 

the Iraq and Afghanistan War, 
will it seem as if I am vindic-
tive, my anger fueled by uni-
versal feelings of dread within 
the region? When I state that 
I believe Zionism is a threat 
to Arab sovereignty and the 
Palestinian people, will they 
assume I state that solely 
because I am Arab or because 
I have come to this reasoning 
through solid evidence? Every-
one but fellow Arabs and I are 
able to speak without seeming 
as though we are predisposed. 
It is impossible to truly sepa-
rate myself from my identity, 
nor do I want my identity as an 
Arab American Muslim to be 
disjointed from who I am. But 
unfortunately, these classes 
are consumed by people who 
would rather assume I am 
motivated by biases, because 
they refuse to accept this mar-
ginalization as colonial strat-
egy. Frankly, I am partially 
biased. It is impossible not to 
be when I have seen friends 
deported, cried with them 
over deaths overseas and felt 
deep pangs of fear whenever 
an attack occurs in the Middle 
East, fearing for my family 
and my friends’ families safe-
ty. Despite being emotionally 
fueled, these biases are backed 
by substantial data, and I, 
alongside allies, have history 
and human rights as founda-
tions for our beliefs. As I, and 
others like me, are labeled 

“biased” while everyone else 
is allowed a valid opinion, any 
possibility of peace in the Mid-
dle East dims as the Western 
voice is elevated.

All of these factors breed the 

current toxic landscape of the 
Middle East. Intervention by 
political forces have exacer-
bated severe flaws in the Arab 
region and are the origins of 
the destruction that the U.S. 
and the West claim they yearn 
to pacify. The American politi-
cal system supports Israeli 
annexation, makes financial 
gains from Saudi’s war with 
Yemen, and has continued to 
exacerbate wars in the region 
to appease the military indus-
trial complex. It certainly did 
not have to be that way. With 
only Westerners having the 
ability to comment on Middle 
Eastern 
politics, 
American 

intervention in the region and 
a twisted education system 
geared to demean Arab His-
tory and prop up imperialism, 
there is a mainstream belief 
that the West is the only one 
that can save the Middle East. 
In actuality, the notion of a 
white savior complex has been 
ironically bred out of white 
destruction of the region. How 
can the Middle East depend on 
Western touch for the revival 
of a heart the West stabbed 
to decimate? If the West truly 
wanted peace in the Middle 
East, they would leave the 
Arab world alone to fight for 
their own liberation. But they 
don’t, and that’s why the Mid-
dle East will never truly have 
peace with Western interven-
tion — not because Arabs do 
not want it, but because the 
West itself has an active stake 
in depriving it.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan In Color
6 — Wednesday, October 21, 2020 

 VICTORIA MINKA

MiC Columnist

EMAN NAGA
MiC Columnist

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Mike Peluso
(c)2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/21/20

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

10/21/20

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2020

ACROSS

1 “... where the sun 

/ Came peeping 
in at __”: Thomas 
Hood

5 Willie Mays, twice
8 Bowler’s test

13 Carpet calculation
14 China setting
15 Soccer star Rossi
16 *Old bowling alley 

employee

18 Cry of dismay
19 Country singer 

Womack

20 Even things
22 Part of ESL: Abbr.
23 *Pass prevention 

strategy

28 Editor’s change 

of heart

30 “I agree!”
31 It’s north of Afr.
32 Not very exciting
35 Seasickness 

symptom

38 Cautionary 

workplace axiom 
... or a hint to 
the starts of 
the answers to 
starred clues

40 Elk
42 Pre-discount 

prices

43 Not well
44 Dollop
46 Pacino’s voice, at 

times

50 *Bad homes for 

critics?

55 Golf standard
56 Deal with
57 Capitol feature
59 Like four Sandy 

Koufax games

61 *One-on-one golf 

competition

64 It’s good in Chile
65 Agree with
66 Shoppe modifier
67 Shakespearean 

forest

68 2000s TV 

forensic 
technician, to 
pals

69 Fly high

DOWN

1 Breakfast 

condiment 
sources

2 Get one’s 

bearings

3 Go back on a 

promise

4 Org. in the 

biodrama 
“Hidden Figures”

5 WY winter hrs.
6 Compete
7 Pre-Rose Bowl 

tradition

8 Many an “SNL” 

skit

9 Two-time U.S. 

Open winner 
Stewart

10 Illicit rendezvous 

site

11 La Corse, par 

exemple

12 Play (with)
14 53 for I, e.g.
17 Split __: New 

Zealand band

21 Court sport
24 Astro’s finish?
25 Harris of country
26 Take to court
27 Stat for Justin 

Verlander

29 Spicy cuisine
33 Time and again, 

to Yeats

34 Driver’s license 

datum

36 Poetic verb

37 Cold War letters
38 Made waves?
39 Slight fabrications
40 Freak (out)
41 Every bit
45 Rose ominously
47 Swing era 

Harlem hot spot

48 Tea since 1892
49 Supplication
51 River to the 

English Channel

52 Resolute about

53 Danish shoe 

brand

54 NFL defensive end 

Ndamukong __

58 Med. plan 

options

59 Home to Kings: 

Abbr.

60 “__ Gang”
62 Versatile card
63 “Much 

appreciated,” in 
texts

SUDOKU

7
2

5
8

1

9
6

7

8
5

4

3

2

1
3

3
8

6
9

7
2

2

3

5
6

3

6

2
4

4

2

7

6
5
9

“60 characters. 
Bare your soul.

 Get featured in the Daily!”

WHISPER

Introducing the


“I’m just tired 
of this
pandemic 
stuff”

“I think I’mad-
dicted to tech-
noblade :/”

WHISPER

‘Peace’ in the Middle East

History is circular;
A reflection on Japanese Internment

