My hypertext for the Spring Quarter course of “Remixing Little Brother” with Professor Marc Bousquet is about the way in which the United States Government responds to pivotal incidents that threaten our nation such as the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Obviously, many people are impacted by such occurrences, but what types of people are affected and why? How does our country change as a response to these kinds of attacks? Are our rights affected in any way? All these small questions lead to my larger question that is: How has the justice system become more unfair since the attack on September 11, 2001?
The main issue discussed in my hypertext is the discrimination immigrants have faced since the incident. Throughout this website, I have included specific actions our government has taken to "protect" its citizens. However, this process that is intended to help ensure the safety of American citizens has ultimately caused specific ethnicities to feel discriminated among their own people while simultaneously creating a distrustful environment. In his novel, Little Brother, Cory Doctorow portrays themes regarding issues of ethnicity and immigration as well as stories regarding the revolutionary impact of questioning the "norm." Through such analyses, problems concerning gender discrimination come into play as well. Throughout this website, facts and research related to Doctorow's overarching concepts of Little Brother are added in addition to ideas in relation to the novel.
My original contribution for this hypertext was to analyze Cory Doctorow's writings in his novel, Little Brother. Throughout this book, Doctorow emphasizes key points relating to authority and how it reacts to threatening events such as the attack on September 11 or more specifically, the attack on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco (as mentioned in his story).
The main topic my website focuses on is the issue of immigration and how laws enforcing it became more strict immediately following 9/11. In Doctorow's novel, Marcus and his friends are deemed the primary enemies by the DHS, who kidnap them and send them off to a prison off the coast of San Francisco. I concluded that Doctorow's main message to the reader was to connect the labeling of innocent teenagers to the labeling of innocent immigrants. In reading the book, it is blatantly obvious that Marcus is not guilty and has nothing to hide. Perhaps Doctorow's implication is that immigrants, like Marcus, also have nothing to hide. Doctorow exaggerates the ridiculous actions the DHS takes in capturing suspicious perpetrators, which I perceive as a direct reflection of the ways in which our government has wrongfully accused many of its legal citizens.
My only criticism to Doctorow's writing is that he should have put more effort in emphasizing the role foreigners play. Rather than relating immigrants to teenagers, perhaps he could have related immigrants to people in different cities or people who look "different."
Doctorow touches on concerning issues of ethnicity are raised to reflect the ways in which people of different races are discriminated with or without any particular reason. While one would think instances such as an explosion on the Bay Bridge or an attack on the Twin Towers would change how various people are treated, it is evident that people of minorities are treated that way even if things like this never happened.
During the novel, the main character, Marcus, and his good friend, Jolu, discuss their plan to fight for justice against the DHS. During this time, Jolu, a male American citizen of black descent, explains to Marcus that he can no longer work with him on fighting the United States government.
“I hate to say it, but you’re white. I’m not. White people get caught with cocaine and do a little rehab time. Brown people get caught with crack and go to prison for twenty years. White people see cops on the street and feel safer. Brown people see cops on the street and wonder if they’re about to get searched. The way the DHS is treating you? The law in this country has always been like that for us” (Doctorow 160).
Through Jolu, Doctorow makes a key point: "whether we like it or not, people who are not white are—at least in the United States—ultimately treated unfairly. It just so happens that attacks on U.S. territory intensifies sensitivities and prejudice against particular groups of colored people."
While I fully agree with the point Doctorow is trying to make, I feel as though he should have done more to emphasize how people of certain ethnicities are discriminated against. Maybe he could have dedicated a chapter to portraying the ways in which United States citizens of color are affected when attacks occur.
Another topic Doctorow talks about is how immigrants are affected by large threats to the United States in his novel, Little Brother. In Chapter Six, Marcus stops by the Turkish coffee shop on his way to school one morning. When he tries to pay for his coffee with his debit card, the Turkish man does not accept it, saying that he now only accepts cash. Though confused at first, the man explains that “[his] shop will not help [the government] spy on [his] customers” (Doctorow 90), and that he emigrated from Turkey because he didn’t want to be spied on the government.
In my perspective, this scene was written to reflect two things. The first was to describe the stereotypical “American Dream and how many people entering the United States come with the mindset that they can do whatever they want because there is opportunity everywhere. America is known as “the land of the free” and will definitely be much better than their homeland…or so they think.
The second is to portray how the American Dream has become more difficult to achieve due to the government: due to cases such as 9/11 where America has been under attack, authorities have made it much harder for immigrants to prosper in our country. They are discriminated against by authorities, passer-byers, neighbors, etc. for no apparent reason.
I feel as though the author could have expanded upon this particular issue much more than he did. Through my scholarly research in looking for ways in which people are affected due to instances like 9/11, the vast majority of information I found had to do with the ways immigrants were affected. Since it appears as though Little Brother is in direct connection with the attack on 9/11, it only seems fit for him to include the large factor of immigrants/immigration.
In terms of gender issues, one thing I found interesting in Cory Doctorow’s reading,is that he does not disparage the female sex in any way. Though the hero in the book is a male character, Doctorow still empowers women including Vanessa, Ange, Masha, Severe Haircut Lady, and Barbara, by portraying them as strong, independent, capable and equal.
Perhaps Doctorow intends to portray to his readers a key point in our nation’s Constitution regarding citizens' Constitutional rights: that all men are created equal. In his book, there are countless examples of our country going against everything it stands for. It seems as though the author portrays the female characters as equals to men to emphasize how our country has continued to better itself in terms of treated women equally even through instances like 9/11.
Aside from issues regarding gender and race, the author explains in his novel that redefining the norm is revolutionary. One example he talks about that stood out to me was when Marcus’s father gets “pulled over, searched, questioned. Twice,” causing him to come home three hours late (Doctorow 132).
This is a good example of redefining the norm because white people, like Marcus’s father, are never the targets of police. Stereotypically, people of Indian and African decent are the ones to get pulled aside by authorities, so it is odd that a Caucasian person, let alone a man would get pulled over. Ironically enough, Marcus’s father comes home angrier than ever, exclaiming how skewed the government was when just a couple days earlier, lectured Marcus on how they were only doing it to help.
One can interpret this as Doctorow’s way of portraying the ways in which immigrants and minorities are treated. The fact that Marcus’s dad gets pulled over is a good example of redefining the norm because it is never a Caucasian male who gets pulled over by the police, but rather (stereotypically) men of Indian or African descent. It is abnormal to see a white man being questioned by authorities, but normal to see a colored man being questioned by authorities.
Another key takeaway from this example is that people do not notice things when they are normal, but are taken aback when abnormal things happen. Redefining the norm is revolutionary because doing so is not socially accepted by any standard. When things aren’t “normal,” people feel uncomfortable. At the same time, it is hard to do something influential if nobody agrees with you, which brings me to the point that no one will agree with you if your argument isn’t “normal.” This is my way of interpreting the reason why redefining the norm is revolutionary.
While the primary pages of my hypertext consist of concepts regarding Doctorow’s reading, Little Brother, the rest are on fact-based research that discuss the ways in which our own society has changed due to attacks on United States territory such as the one on September 11. There is also background information that supports issues regarding national security and the justice system including statistical facts on immigration, Constitutional rights, and the attack on the Twin Towers.
In describing the changes of our nation’s justice system, I discuss certain topics concerning things such as airport security. Immediately following the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, many United States citizens were afraid to use airplanes as their main mode of transportation and resorted to driving, riding on trains and buses, etc. This is one of the main reasons the strictness in the United States airline system has greatly increased: authorities want to ensure the safety and comfort of its people at all times.
The fact that the attack occurred in the first place also gave the government reason to amp up airline security and surveillance. It has been nearly a decade since the terrorist attack and much has changed in the ways airports operate. One thing they did was implement the use of full body scanners. When going through airport security lines, people are randomly chosen to stand in full body scanners which identify any threats an individual may have on his person, but this also sends lots of UV radiation through a person's body. The person standing in the body scanner receives no protection from the radiation, so while these scanners may be helpful in the short-run, they can ultimately be detrimental to one's general health.
If, however, people decide not to have radiation coursing through their bodies, they have no choice but to participate in full body pat-downs. Some people believe—myself included—that pat-downs are better than going through full body scanners because it does not send large amounts of radiation through peoples’ system. I do, however, believe that the government takes a risk in doing pat-downs simply because it is a large liability. Should someone accuse an airport worker that he or she was attempting to molest him or her, the airport can be sued for large amounts of money.
As a result, it seems fair to assume that most people feel safe flying on airplanes today. Sadly though, people's Constitutional rights are taken away in return for this safety. While I believe airport security has improved, I also believe that it is necessary to find other ways to identify dangerous personnel using non-invasive and healthy methods. Another way the justice system has changed are the ways in which they have dealt with surveillance. Once again touching on Doctorow's novel, Little Brother, the issue of surveillance plays a large role in the story. The main character, Marcus, a rebellious tech-savvy teenager, tries to trick the system by creating his own communication network through the Xbox in hopes to achieve justice in his city, where terrorists recently bombed the Bay Bridge. The DHS (Department of Homeland Security) responded to this disaster by kidnapping innocent people and implementing surveillance systems all over the town. Throughout the book, everyone is continuously being tracked, analyzed and watched by the government. Credit and debit card transactions are monitored, policemen arrest those with suspicious subway riding patterns, cameras are installed within schools, etc.
So to answer the overarching question stated in my home page regarding surveillance (Are there ways in which our justice system has become more unfair due to instances such as 9/11?), I believe the answer is yes. In this book, the government went a bit far in attempting to catch suspects. Additional terror spread throughout San Francisco as a result of the DHS's excessive use of surveillance. In this case, peoples' Constitutional rights were breached in that their right to privacy was invaded.
I also talk about how certain people have been targeted within the past decade. The issues of immigration and race discussed earlier are not only portrayed in Little Brother but also in real-life situations, especially when we see immigrants and people of color being discriminated against. Ever since the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, there has been a drastic increase in the amount of discrimination towards the Indian ethnicity. Throughout my research on this topic, I came across many stories told my Indian men who expressed the amount of hate they have received on multiple occasions.
Everyone now automatically assumes being Indian somehow relates to being a terrorist. Interestingly enough, it was a group of Islamic men (Al-Qaeda), who were behind the 9/11 incident. Unfortunately though, all people--mainly men--who look anything like an Islamic man is assumed to be a terrorist by the general public. Muslims, Arabs, etc. have all been settled into one category, meaning that they are all associated with the word "terrorist." Sadly, the government did not exactly help this increased discrimination. Many Indian men were forcefully taken from their homes and put placed into prisons for interrogation. Airline authorities pull more men of Indian decent out of security lines and into further investigation more than any other ethnicity. The impact of 9/11 has had a huge negative impact on our country, and many Indian men have had to pay a large price for legitimate reason.
Aside from Muslims, other people of color have faced much prejudice for no legitimate reason. In response to 9/11, immigrants became the number one target and enemy to the United States of America. While I fully believe this is true, I do not think people are targeted only based on whether or not they are an immigrant. To some extent, I believe that in response to this disaster, many people were targeted based on the way they looked.
Say, for example, you have two people stand in front of the Department of Homeland Security. The person on the right is a white woman who has just been granted permanent residency after migrating from Turkey two years back. The person on the right is a Muslim man wearing a turban whose parents were born in the United States, making him a second generation Indian and therefore a ful citizen of America. Not knowing the backgrounds of these two people, which one do you think would be placed under custody?
My point is not in any way to be racist. My main message is that authorities have no way of knowing who is and isn't a legal individual in this country just by looking at them, yet many people--both immigrant and citizen--have been interrogated and held in custody against their will. Immigrants are not the only victims in this case.
We see that in many ways, United States citizens’ Constitutional rights are being violated. We see that the Second, Fourth and Sixth Amendments are in violation when people are not allowed to possess certain tools necessary to protect themselves, are protected against unreasonable searches unless people have warrants, and have the right to a legitimate trial by the jury. Overall, it is evident through research and Cory Doctorow’s, Little Brother that our country’s justice system has changed in ways that have hurt our citizens in various ways.
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