Monday, January 30, 2017

Google Needs You to Know about Fred Korematsu

by Kim D.

Quick. Go to Google and at the top of the page you will see a doodle depicting a guy wearing a medal and you'll scratch your head wondering, who the heck is that. Hover your mouse over the image and the name Fred Korematsu solves the mystery. Well, kind of.  Who the heck is (or was) Fred Korematsu?

Click on the picture and a Google search answers that question too with a flood of articles and blog posts telling you why should care about Fred Korematsu, along with ominous warnings about one of President Trump's first executive orders in regard to banning refugees from Muslim countries.

Korematsu was a Japanese American who was forced into an internment camp during World War II. After the Pearl Harbor attack, FDR (celebrated Democrat) signed Executive Order 9066 which branded people of Japanese descent to be a military threat and ordered that they be put in internment camps across the United States.

Fred Korematsu, 23 years old at the time, rebelled and refused to relocate to the camps. Instead he went into hiding until arrested for defying the government executive order. Korematsu fought his conviction - all the way to the Supreme Court - yet lost the case.  He was released after the war ended but his record was scarred by this conviction.

It wasn't until 1983 that the courts under Ronald Reagan (Republican - go figure) got involved to clear Korematsu's name and record, citing that the original conviction was racially motivated.  In 1998 Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom and said
"In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls - Plessy, Brown, Parks - to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu."
The warnings are clear - if America profiles its citizens, innocent people will be disenfranchised just like Japanese Americans were after the Pearl Harbor attack. Over the weekend, various news reports showed protests in major airports in reaction to the immigration ban from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The social justice warriors marching in pussy hats last weeks barely had time to catch their breaths before flocking to airports to screech about the inequality of an Muslim refugee ban. The news loves to show YUGE crowds when they support the cause, while most Americans working 9-5 then scrambling to make dinner and help with homework shake their heads, knowing that all the rhetoric and drama will not keep Americans safe.  Reducing the risk of allowing terrorists to come in to the country is more effective and why most went to the polls across Fly Over and pulled the lever for Donald Trump, the only candidate to identify this problem and vow to correct it if elected.

But back to Google's celebration of Fred Korematsu's legacy, is there more here that meets the eye? After all restricting immigration from countries infested with ISIS terrorists who have vowed to bring the fight to our shores is not the same as rounding up Americans of Muslim descent and putting them into internment camps. Could it be Google has a vested interest in ramping up the rhetoric in opposition to President Trump and his "Keep America Safe" agenda?

According to Tech Crunch, yes. 
So the propaganda continues. Along with Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, many companies that have a global footprint are balking at an executive order to ban Muslim immigrants. Expect more screeching about the horrors of profiling instead of the reality of an American policy to avoid the pain Europe has felt with its previous open-border policy in regard to refugees.

No comments:

Post a Comment