By Jenny Jonak

Many of us have watched videos of the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Good’s and Pretti’s deaths stand out, in part, because of the existence of videos that directly contradict the government’s account of the shootings.

But the backlash is also because we are less likely to ignore overreach in the name of national security when it involves someone who looks American. Good and Pretti were visually, undeniably “American.” 

Public outrage over state violence is not about government overreach alone — it is about who is perceived as American enough for that overreach to matter.

This is not a new phenomenon. American law has repeatedly defined “American” in racial terms. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first U.S. law to bar immigration based entirely on race and nationality. Chinese residents were required to prove legal status on demand. “Show me your papers” enforcement is what we are now seeing in Minnesota with a Hmong elder — who has been a U.S. citizen for decades — marched out in the snow in his underwear. Or reports of ICE profiling and detaining Native Americans; even the original inhabitants of our country must prove their right to be here.

Until 1952, U.S. citizenship was legally limited to “free white persons.” Later, persons of African descent were added. Asians were explicitly excluded. Being American was racial, and certain races could not fully belong.

In 1942, the U.S. president issued an executive order for the forcible removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Most were U.S. citizens. The government required no proof that any of them had done anything wrong. Ancestry alone was a “threat” to national security.

In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this action, relying on the Roosevelt administration’s claim that Japanese Americans were a security threat during a time of war. Unbeknownst to the Supreme Court, the government possessed intelligence directly contradicting these claims but suppressed it, instead implying the military had secret intelligence justifying exclusion. 

We were at war with Germany and Italy, as well as Japan, but citizens of German and Italian descent were never incarcerated on the basis of their ancestry.

Despite the later evidence that came out, including unanimous findings from a commission in the 1980s, it took until 2018 before the Supreme Court repudiated the decision.

What happened to Asian Americans parallels racial stereotyping of other communities as “dangerous.” This includes the stereotyping of Muslims and persons of Middle Eastern descent as terrorists, the fear of Black people as inherently dangerous, and claims that immigrants from Latin America are “invading” our country. 

If Renee Good and Alex Pretti had not been white, would it have been as obvious to the public that they were not “domestic terrorists”?

Our society has been willing to accept deaths of residents of color based on dubious claims of law enforcement. We have sanctioned targeting people on the basis of race or accent in immigration enforcement. It is only when it happens to “Americans” that we realize we may have stepped over a line.

You will hear excuses: If only she had stayed home; if only he hadn’t “interfered” with federal agents… This is how unconstitutional conduct is rationalized after the fact. In the Pretti case, the truth is on video, and we can see that this is happening to “Americans.”

I ask you: What is an American?

Will you see it when it happens to someone that doesn’t look American to you?

Will you see that our treatment of the most marginalized in our society is only a testing ground for how far we can strip someone of their rights, and sooner or later, that will come for you? 

Jenny Jonak is a Korean American attorney, member of the Eugene 4J School Board, and board member of the Asian American Council of Oregon. This represents only her individual viewpoint and not those of any organization.