Beacon Press: We Are All Suspects Now
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We Are All Suspects Now

Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11

Author: Tram Nguyen   Foreword by: Edwidge Danticat

In an ironic reversal of the American dream, a staggering 20,000 members of the immigrant community of Midwood, Brooklyn (known as Little Pakistan), voluntarily left the United States after 9/11. Tram Nguyen reveals the human cost of the domestic war on terror and examines the impact of post-9/11 policies on people targeted because of immigration status, nationality, and religion. Nguyen’s evocative narrative reporting--about the families, detainees, local leaders, community advocates, and others living on the front lines--tells the stories of people who witnessed and experienced firsthand the unjust detainment or deportation of family members, friends, and neighbors. We meet Mohammad Butt, who died in detention in New Jersey, and the Saleems, who flee Queens for Canada. We even follow a self-proclaimed ’citizen patroller’ who monitors and detains immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

We Are All Suspects Now, in the words of Mike Davis, “takes us inside a dark world . . . where the American Dream is fast turning into a nightmare and suggests proactive responses to stop our growing climate of xenophobia, intimidation, and discrimination."

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“In the fall of 2004, I, too, suffered a devastating Department of Homeland Security-related loss, joining the post-9/11 suspect community in a way I had never expected or imagined . . . We are indeed, all of us, suspects.” -from the Foreword by Edwidge Danticat

Reviews

Review by: Mike Davis, Author of Dead Cities and Planet of Slums - September 15, 2005
"In this brave and deeply moving book, Tram Nguyen chronicles immigrant lives caught in a sinister web of suspicion, bigotry and state-sponsored terror."
Review by: Helen Zia, Author of Asian American Dreams - September 1, 2005
"With meticulous detail and clear, riveting prose, Nguyen dares to tell the shocking stories of America's 'disappeared' . . . To understand what is happening in the name of national security, you must read this important book."
Review by: Vijay Prashad, Author of Darker Nations - September 1, 2005
"Nguyen powerfully documents the hidden costs of 'homeland security.' With empathy and anger she tells of lives disrupted by fear. A masterpiece of our horrid times."
Review by: Arsalan Iftikhar, Legal director, Council on Amer-Islamic Relations - September 1, 2005
"In an era when minority communities in America are being unjustly demonized, it is heartening to see a book like We Are All Suspects Now, which richly humanizes the victims of racial backlash."

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We Are All Suspects Now

ISBN: 978-080700461-6
Publication Date: 9/15/2005
Pages: 212
Size: x Inches (US)
Price:  $16.00
Format: 
Availability: In stock.