Call for Entries:

How have you experienced racism or anti-Muslim discrimination since 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq? Describe specific personal, family, or friend’s experience, and how you were impacted?

I-Witness Youth Project

For an online documentation project and public event in April 2008 at the Oakland Museum.  Check us out on Facebook under: Hidden Internments

Are you a direct or indirect survivor of the US War on Terror?

Are you a survivor of discrimination and racism directed towards the Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern or South Asian communities? 

How have you been personally impacted by the expansion of the Department of Homeland Security and the PATRIOT Act?

How has your life been changed by increased anti-Arab and anti-Muslim language in the media, by the government and on the streets?

Want to speak your mind?

Calling all young people between the ages of 13 to 25 to submit testimonies about your life post-9/11.

Up to ten of the testimonies received will be selected for use in a public event (with authors permission) drawing connections between mass internment and civil liberties abuses during WWII, and the abuse and detentions of Arabs and Muslims in the present time.

The event will feature, speakers, performances, and a film screening, with the hope of learning from our histories, and building strength towards overcoming oppression in the future.

About the Collaboration

Enemy Alien Files Consortium grew out of an opportunity for communities to collaborate to bring together a report and event entitled: The Enemy Alien Files: Hidden Stories of World War II features German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants who were branded “enemy aliens” and their experience during World War II.  A goal of this original project was to draw connections between WWII era civil rights abuses, and those abuses post-9/11.  In its current formation, this group (see below for participating organizations), is working together to plan an event to bring those impacted as youth during WWII internment, and those youth now, from Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities, currently experiencing similar government civil liberties infringements on their communities.

Submissions

What to do: 

Speak from the heart, your testimony will not be judged or graded or checked for grammar, we just want to hear and record your story. 

Tell your friends about this opportunity

Email your story to justice@araborganizing.org

Please keep responses to less than 500 words or one page typed.

Send testimony by March 1st, 2008

If you have any questions please email, or call 415-861-7444.

If possible, please address the following questions in your testimony:  

How have you experienced racism or anti-Muslim discrimination since 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq? Describe specific personal, family, or friend’s experience, and how you were impacted.

How were your civil rights violated? How did you react?

What was the impact on your family or community?  How did your community respond?

As a young person, how has this experience changed your life?

What do you do to help heal from racism? 

What changes can you make in your community?

How does this experience relate to other experiences of communities of color that you know about (ex. Japanese internment, slavery and need for reparations in the US, genocide of indigenous peoples).

WHO IS THE ENEMY ALIEN FILES CONSORTIUM?

The Enemy Alien Files Consortium is a unique collaboration among the Japanese, German and Italian American communities which initially came together in 2000 to develop the groundbreaking traveling exhibit, The Enemy Alien Files: Hidden Stories of World War II. The EAF Consortium continues to organize educational projects and promote public dialogue about the WWII experiences of immigrants of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry and their families in the U.S. and from Latin America, and lessons which may be applicable to current national and world events.

EAF Consortium Member Organizations:

American Italian Historical Association–Western Regional Chapter (AIHA-WRC) is part of a national organization, founded in 1966, committed to exploring the history and culture of Italians in America. This Chapter provides research and educational programs, including its traveling exhibit, UNA STORIA SEGRETA: When Italians were Enemy Aliens. 

German American Internee Coalition (GAIC), formed in 2005, is dedicated to making public the little- known United States World War II policies that led to internment, repatriation and exchange of civilians of German ethnicity, both in the United States and Latin America.

Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project (JPOHP) was formed in 1991 by former Japanese Peruvian internees and their families to document and preserve family oral histories and to promote public education and dialogue about the Japanese Latin American experience during World War II and efforts to secure redress for wartime human rights violations.

National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS), founded in 1980, is a non-profit membership supported organization dedicated to the collection, preservation, and interpretation of the Japanese American experience for the diverse broader national community. NJAHS develops and presents exhibitions, publications, videos, interactive multimedia and public education and cultural programs.

EAF CONSORTIUM PARTNERS:

Since 2001, the EAF Consortium has developed educational materials and organized exhibit shows, educational programs and events, video screenings and cultural presentations in partnership with numerous community organizations and institutions across the US.

Partners on the I-Witness Youth Project to be held in April 2008 are:

American Muslim Voice (AMV), founded in 2003, is a grassroots, nonviolent, inclusive, civil, immigrant and human rights organization building genuine partnerships with like-minded groups and individuals to protect and preserve civil liberties and constitutional rights for ALL. Our goal is to build bridges with and unite all communities under the umbrella of our common humanity.

39675 Cedar Blvd., Ste. 295-D, Newark, CA 94560
(650) 397-1994
www.amuslimvoice.org
amvoice@amuslimvoice.org

Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), formerly ADC-SF, works to make real changes for the Arab community in the Bay Area through political action, immigrant legal services, anti-discrimination advocacy, leadership development and education.

(415) 861-7444
www.araborganizing.org

Council on American-Islamic Relations–No. California (San Francisco Bay Area)

(CAIR-No. Cal), founded in 1994, is part of a national, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group whose mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

3000 Scott Blvd., Ste. 212, Santa Clara, CA 95054
(408) 986-9874
www.cair-california.org
nocal@cair.com

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is a national alliance of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations and activists. The National Network advocates for a just immigration and refugee policy in the United States and works to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status.

310-8th Street,Ste. 303, Oakland, CA 94607
Tel (510) 465-1984
Fax (510) 465-1885
www.nnirr.org
nnirr@nnirr.org

Arab Resource and Organizing Center
www.araborganizing.org
415-861-7444