PRA hosts Tram Nguyen,
Author of We Are All Suspects
On September 21, PRA hosted a book tour event for
Tram Nguyen, a research colleague at Colorlines
Magazine and the author of We Are All Supects: Untold
Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11 (Beacon
Press.) The event was co-sponsored by Applied Research
Center, Beacon Press, the Gustavus Myers Center
for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights, and Simmons
Institute for Leadership and Change.
A standing room only crowd of 50 guests listened
intently as Tram Nguyen described the heart-wrenching stories
of immigrants systematically being detained, deported,
or having their basic human rights violated, post-9/11. One such
story detailed how a Muslim refugee, who fled Somali's civil
war, became mired in the nightmarish U. S. criminal justice system
and immigration courts fighting deportation as America
escalated its domestic war on terror. In this post-9/11 environment,
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Photo credit:
Anh Dao Kolbe |
Tram says, "the nexus of racism and national security" has
exacerbated an already worsening situation for immigrants,
particularly for people of color, as policies of
racial profiling, suspicion, and fear-mongering mount.
She warns that "the war on terror has become a politically
expedient way for law enforcement to institutionalize
racial profiling of communities of color."
To counter these policies, she insists that we need to form
multi-racial coalitional efforts to increase public awareness
of these policies, while at the same time challenge the prevailing
frame of "national security" and "homeland security"
by asking "what is true security?" and "security for
whom?"
(For We Are All Suspects ordering information, check
out Beacon Press's website.)
Tom Louie, PRAccess Editor
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