The Hidden Consequences of the 9/11 Attacks

                        The Hidden Consequences of the 9/11 Attacks

In the 67 minute-long LatinoUSA episode, which was released on September 10th, 2021(listening on May 3rd, 2022), titled 9/11’s Immigration Legacy, Maria Hinojosa and Julieta Martinelli explain how the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 shaped the future for not only Muslim-Americans, but for Latino immigrants, as well. While listening to this episode, I was exposed to a lot of information that I hadn’t previously thought about. When I think of the devastating attacks that took place on September 11th, I instantly think about the debilitating effects our society’s inherent racism had on Muslim-American communities. What I failed to previously consider was the fact that heightened security and an increased distrust in people of color (with an emphasis on immigrants) created more obstacles for Latinos trying to come into the United States. I was able to find an article which outlined more pain that the Latino community faced after the attacks. While this is a sad topic to learn about, there were definitely some intriguing pieces of information. One part of the podcast which stuck out to me was the line at nineteen minutes when Hinojosa stated that “The policies that followed under the guise of securing the nation would infiltrate numerous aspects of local and federal governments, including states’ departments of motor vehicles. But at the other end of the new ‘anti-terrorism policies’, the people most affected would once again be immigrant families” (Latino, 19:00-19:22). It seems like such a strange domino effect, but it was an unfortunate reality for those seeking a new life for themselves during this time. This topic was actually very captivating and there wasn’t any information that I regret or didn’t enjoy learning about.

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September 1th, 2001 Attacks

The article titled All Along the Watchtower: Acculturation Fear, Anti-Latino Affect, and Immigration, which was written by Regina Branton, Erin C. Cassese, Bradford S. Jones and Chad Westerland. This article, which was published in 2011, analyzes the factors which created the current American perspective on immigration in a post-9/11 world. Essentially, they use data which was collected over the course of four years to accurately portray the shift in attitudes towards immigration. I chose this article because I feel it compliments the LatinoUSA segment in the sense that it dives deeper into the way that Americans were affected and how their negative emotions reflected that. On the first page of the article, which in this case is 664, the authors write that the “language used to describe the immigration issue -invasion, porous border, illegal, etc.-explicitly creates a division” (Branton, Cassese, Jones, Westerland, 664). Not only does it create an explicitly negative divide between our society and those who are immigrating, it also villainizes people unnecessarily. It is also a prime example of the way Americans were desperate to find something to blame and project their devastation upon. Unfortunately, a post 9/11 United States society was distrustful of anybody new coming in, therefore anti-immigrant sentiment began to evolve into something which now seems deeply rooted in our history.

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Activists Inspired to Stand Up for Immigrants’ Rights

Using both the LatinoUSA segment and the article from the Journal of Politics, I was able to discover more ways in which minority groups were attacked after 9/11, despite having no connection to the terrorist organizations. The theme that I am focusing on involves technology and art. Art does not present itself in the article or the podcast, and while in these two sources there isn’t an expansive mention of technology, I would argue that math in itself is one of the most important forms of technology. On page 8 of the article, it shows the equation to find the difference between the estimated data collected between 2000 and 2004. It states that “the basic form of the model is: Y*=βιχί+β（D=2000)β[χίX(D=2000)]” (Branton, Cassese, Jones, Westerland, 664). This demonstrates the complex ways in which this form of “technology” can be used to create organized information based on unorganized pieces of data. In the LatinoUSA segment, however, the host states that after the attacks, citizens needed some form of action from their government, so “Initially, politicians began calling out for a national database so that policies mirrored each other state-to-state, but issuing of identification cards falls under state legislation, so the federal government could not take over and enforce any uniform set of rules” (Latino, 28:10-28:25). This database is a form of technology that would have served the American people in a positive way, had it been carried out correctly. Fortunately, new policies have been put in place since then, hopefully giving them the peace of mind they deserve.

 

Works Cited:

Branton, Regina, et al. “All Along the Watchtower: Acculturation Fear, Anti-Latino Affect, and Immigration.” JSTOR, 3 Aug. 2011, https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.losrios.edu/stable/10.1017/s0022381611000375?searchText=%28%289%2F11%29+AND+%28Latino%29%29&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fgroup%3Dnone%26q0%3D9%252F11%26q1%3DLatino%26q2%3D%26q3%3D%26q4%3D%26q5%3D%26q6%3D%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26pt%3D%26isbn%3D%26f0%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26f1%3Dall%26c2%3DAND%26f2%3Dall%26c3%3DAND%26f3%3Dall%26c4%3DAND%26f4%3Dall%26c5%3DAND%26f5%3Dall%26c6%3DAND%26f6%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26la%3D%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A63bb1b44dded9d0483e7e0183f09e436&seq=8. Accessed 3 May 2022.

Contreras, Russell. “The Latino Pain of Sept. 11.” Axios.com, 11 Sept. 2021, https://www.axios.com/latino-sept-11-immigrants-67da925e-bbcc-4a0a-9c50-1eda2882b934.html.

Flanagin, Jake. “9/11 Forever Changed the Concept of Immigration in the US.” Quartz, Quartz, https://qz.com/499481/911-forever-changed-the-concept-of-immigration-in-the-us/.

“Latino USA.” CapRadio, https://www.capradio.org/news/latino-usa/.