George Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽Dec 7, 2022
Today is Pearl Harbor Day in the U.S., a “day that will live in infamy” for the unprovoked attack by the Empire of Japan upon U.S. forces stationed in Hawaii. But it also marked a dark turning point for Japanese Americans, who overnight became the “enemy.” (1/4)
Show threadGeorge Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽Dec 7, 2022
At age 4, I was classified as 4c, enemy alien, even though I was born in the U.S. Within a few months, the internment of our community was ordered by FDR with broad support from the American people, who turned their backs upon us. We lost our homes, our businesses and our freedoms. (2/4)
Show threadGeorge Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽Dec 7, 2022
It has been my lifelong mission to tell the story of the Japanese American internment so that we remember and do not repeat the mistakes of the past. Now, I am bringing that story to the UK from Jan-Apr in a show called “Allegiance” based on my own experiences. (3/4)
Show threadKarl AuerbachDec 7, 2022
@georgetakei Years ago I was at an exhibition of photos of the camps (mostly Manzanar). I overheard a woman say "I was born there." It was a simple statement but it erased the time and space gap between the photos and the reality that it happened to real, living people.
Show thread@[email protected]Dec 7, 2022

@karlauerbach @georgetakei There's a supercentenarian in Brazil that was born to one of the last children born enslaved. Slavery was abolished in 1888.

I think about this quite a bit, how there's people in the world today that are living history and we don't honor them enough.

Show threadKarl AuerbachDec 7, 2022

@lanika @georgetakei - Here in the US we have the infamous and shameful Korematsu case where our Supreme Court refused to condemn the WW-II internment camps. The US partially apologized in 1988.

I had not realized that Brazil had slavery until 1888.

I do feel that we (US) own some form of reparations to those who have been damaged by slavery or internment, even if that happened to their ancestors. The harms we inflicted run through the generations.

Show thread@[email protected]

@karlauerbach

It's a strong discussion in Brazil too.
We have legislation that provides scholarships for the POC (mostly for the African descendents and native population) and it has lifted young people from poverty (and they lift up their communities!) and the violence is disproportionately worse for black people.

Social mobility is also way harder for POC. The same old story: keep people poor to get them desperate enough to work for peanuts.

Dec 7, 2022 at 11:43pmWeb