I've been quite bothered lately by how badly people of middle-eastern descent have been treated in Canada and the US (I expect elsewhere, too, but I don't see that news). We have "no fly lists", mostly populated by people guilty of having brown skin. We have people kicked off aircraft (and arrested, I think) for praying "in a foreign language".
Slightly more than a half-century ago, Canada and the US were at war with a race of people who were visually distinct, and had a reputation for being loyal to their family and race. Many people of that race were Canadian or US citizens, and had done absolutely nothing to harm their new home countries. But we suspected them based on their race, and we feared what they might do. So those people were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and all their property stolen by the government (and sold to white people for very little).
Although I'm not happy with how Canada and the US are treating middle-eastern people today, I am delighted that we have at least progressed, and we are not treating them the same way we treated the Japanese during WW2.
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