Bob Levey

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. government authorized the roundup and internment of thousands of Americans of Japanese descent. The Japanese Americans were sent to desolate camps in the western United States where they remained for the remainder of World War II. The detainments were an outright case of racism and xenophobia. It was feared that even though they were American citizens, the Japanese Americans would support Japan— either covertly or openly—during the war.

Some Americans felt the same fears about other ethnicities when Iranians captured Americans and held them as hostages during the late 1970s, and again after the bombing of Oklahoma City in 1995 which was initially blamed on Islamic extremists. After the attacks of September 11, many Arab Americans were afraid they would be blamed by other Americans for the terrorists' actions, and...