A pattern throughout America’s history reveals that there has been a continuous discrimination against various ethnic groups in the United States. White Americans, who descended from Europeans, imposed their supposedly “superior” capabilities on the Native Americans, who were ousted or forcibly moved to reservations and now have the highest suicide rate of any ethnicity. 

Then came the enslavement of black people for hundreds of years. The slaves from Africa were forced to work for literally nothing and the Europeans reaped the benefits while the Africans suffered. Even after slavery Europeans targeted Africans as the common enemy and this is how racism continued. 

During World War II white Americans interned Japanese, thousands of whom had to leave their homes which were often sold once they were abandoned. Many Japanese were put in the internment camp with barely anything but the clothes on their backs. They were held for a long time without any reason. 

Now, a new discrimination has started at GuantanamoBay with people of Middle Eastern descent. It is uncertain exactly how many are detained because the America military does not release the accurate numbers to the general public. A majority of the people in GuantanamoBay have no idea why they were suddenly taken from their homes and placed in a jail in Cuba. Considering that they have no access to lawyers, one can only speculate about the number of innocent people that are being held in this detention center. Recently there have been accounts of jail guard misconduct toward the prisoners, including spraying prisoners with pepper spray and kicking the bed of an injured prisoner who was in the hospital. Some of these detainees are simply innocent people who have been missing their families for years.

This injustice should be accounted for. Multiple human rights groups spoken out against America for these travesties of justice, but America has muted their cries with the pressing issue of rebuilding Iraq. GuantanamoBay is rarely mentioned in the American media and the United States never reveals any information to the media outlets. The prisoners have been stripped of their human rights simply based on the fact that they are of Middle Eastern descent. I believe that people should speak up and protest against this illegal imprisonment of innocent people.