I couldn’t help but feel both rage and grief as I read “They Called Us Enemy” because of how the Japanese Americans were treated during World War II. It was stunning to me and something that I was aware of, but never really fully understood. Families were forcefully taken from their homes, getting their possessions stripped away from them, and transferred to concentration camps. It made me think about the current racial problems in the US and in the world in general. Even after all the fighting and protesting for change, it is disheartening to see history continue to repeat itself and that people are still victims of racial discrimination and events like what happened in “They Called Us Enemy” occurring again.

An example of this underlying problem that is currently happening is the camps in China. I found an article called “China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang” that covers the Uyghurs and Muslim minorities in a non-biased and educational manner. Since 2017, and is still ongoing, the Chinese government has imprisoned over one million Muslims and they are put to extreme surveillance 24/7, forced labor, and not being able to practice their religion. Not only are they suppressing the Uyghurs and other Muslims, they are also calling these concentration camps education and training centers. The reasons for them being put in these camps is because the Chinese government wants to “protect” their country and eliminate threats. This situation happening in China is extremely similar to what the Japanese Americans went through during WWII and how they were looked at as a “threat” to the US.

As I was researching more about racism, I came across an article titled “8 Everyday Ways to Fight Racism” published on NNED.org. The article discussed various ways to consistently keep yourself in check, and also has ways of actively helping other people and giving away to the community like shopping at small businesses or donating to charities /organizations. This article really provides small, but effective ways to try and stop racism all together as a whole.

Another resource I came across was a TED Talk titled “3 myths about racism that keep the US from progress” by an author who has written two books regarding racism, Candis Watts. In Watt’s talk, she discusses 3 myths the US tends to believe about racism which include, the South is the most racist place in the US, it is quite obvious who the racist are, and racism will die off with the oldest generations of Americans. In her talk, she debunks these theories and ideas that people have about the topic which are all false. She continuously mentions throughout her talk ways to solve the underlying problem. She says, “we would all have to come together to have a shared definition of racism.” What she means by this “shared definition” not only applies to our morals, but how we use them in systems, laws, rules, etc.

This can be applied to the way Japanese Americans were treated during World War II, and in general how hate crimes and racism occurs in our day to day life and a lot of us seem to look past it. Like the Japanese Americans, they had a system and laws working against them simply because of their race which is similar to a lot of the discrimination that goes on now. It’s important to always be open-minded and to advocate for what we think is wrong.

Overall, reading “They Called Us Enemy” opened my eyes to the history of Japanese Americans and what they went through during WWII and how it relates to current issues of racism around the world. It reminded me of the importance of standing up against racism and advocating for change.