BACK/TALK

A question of civil rights

"To simply ask the question, 'Do you know something?' and questions related to that, mindful that the individual is answering voluntarily, I don’t see how that could be an attack on anyone’s civil rights," Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin J. Littlefield Jr. said to the Buffalo News.

"I want to be safe from terrorists, but if we start questioning people based on race or national origin, where does it stop, and what’s left of the system once this is all over?" John Peters, a twenty-three-year-old graduate student in Portland, told The Los Angeles Times.

“Usually, when these powers are given in times of war, they aren’t repealed in times of peace,” according to Senator Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Source: The Los Angeles Times. Wisconsin State Journal. Buffalo News.

The ugly side of post-September 11

A biomedical research professor at Duke University has said he’ll make amends for a scathing e-mail message sent to Pakistani students.

Three medical students from Aga Khan University in Karachi applied for research electives at Duke University. On December 6, they received replies from Michael K. Reedy, a cell biology professor.

"Your ethnicity and your age (student age = idealistic) are so similar to those of the jihad-minded terrorists from the schools that nurtured the Taliban and Al Qaeda that it is not worth our trouble to determine if you are a well-disguised terrorist or a real learning-motivated medical student," the e-mail message read.

"The problem of such global terrorism, motivated by a delusion of holy sanction for the killing of 'infidels,' presently comes mainly from your world and culture," Reedy continued. "I believe it can only be finally solved by your internal action, and I pray you can find better and less violent solutions than we outsiders must use."

Reedy has since publicly apologized: "I see now that my negative reaction came mainly from my anger and frustration with the extremism and deceptiveness of the terrorists of September 11, which seemed to destroy my personal hopes for a reasoned and peaceful resolution of international conflicts.… I deeply apologize for my violent words and bad manners."

Source: The Raleigh News & Observer. Duke University Medical School.

Months later, look how far we've come

California, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Michigan: According to Dr. Ziad Asali in a December 11 testimony before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, these are the states with the greatest numbers of employment discrimination incidents reported since September 11. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee forwarded 115 reports of employment discrimination to the EEOC since September 11.

In one incident, a Maryland construction worker reported physical threats and "ethnic intimidation" to his supervisor, who reportedly said, "Don’t you think they have a right to be angry?" and asked why the worker was not wearing any patriotic clothing or pins.

On Attorney General John Ashcroft’s "Responsible Cooperators Program," the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee says, "Had Mr. Ashcroft consulted with anyone familiar with the Arabic language, he would have known that the word 'cooperator' has an extremely negative connotation that may deter many from participating in a program such as this."

Source: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Fast Facts: Making Ends Meet

Adjusted for inflation, the hourly wage of the average U.S. worker has steadily declined from 1973-1998.

It is estimated that one out of eight workers in the United States has at some point worked for McDonald’s.

Source: Fast Food Nation.

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