Of all the many, many, horrific ideas proposed by President-elect Trump, the idea of a Muslim registry (along with a potential ban on Muslim immigrants) is one of the most horrifying. And that’s the subject taken up in in new PSA short film directed by Aya Tanimura and produced by Katy Perry.
The video, titled #DontNormalizeHate tells the true story of 89-year-old Haru Kuromiya from Riverside California, who was with her father in 1942 when he was taken by the FBI. Kuromiya and her entire family was placed on a registry interred along with over 120,000 Japanese Americans. When they had to leave their homes, their businesses, even their pets, “our constitutional rights were taken away from us.”
It all started with fear and rumors. Then it ballooned into the registration of Japanese Americans, and then labeling with physical tags, and eventually the internment.
The twist here (turn back if you haven’t watched the video and want the surprise) is that while these are Kuromiya’s words, the woman saying them removes her prosthetics to reveal a young Muslim woman. This story from 70 years ago is disturbingly close to repeating itself.
Tanimura, told the LA Times,
Trump has created an atmosphere of fear for Muslim Americans in the United States. The accountability and responsibility for what you say and do now has been lifted so people feel a little freer to be racist, or act upon racism, because there are not necessarily consequences for it — it’s just acceptable behavior. If laws are put in place to back that up, it will be pretty scary.
(via Jezebel, image via screengrab)
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