So this little gem has just started on ABC, and when I saw the commercial my jaw just dropped. "Homeland Security USA" is the newest bit of garbage to join the ranks of TV land. The description on ABC's website says:
They have a job that is dangerous, difficult and always unpredictable. These aren't heroes. They're average men and women working against an epic landscape. The Department's missions include everything from vetting adoption papers and checking visitors' passports to intercepting undocumented immigrants, drugs and other contraband, and stopping potential terrorists trying to cross our borders. What viewers will see is powerful, dramatic, unforgettable and emotional, with unexpected moments of humor. (Emphasis mine)
Is it just me, or is this one of the most transparent attempts at propaganda ever?? It's playing off of the racist seedlings that W has worked so hard to plant and works to demonize /criminalize people of color. The not-so-sly inclusion of drugs in the description is another distorted attempt to tie people of color (specifically Mexican immigrants) to drug trafficking.
This fear mongering bullshit only perpetuates negative and misinformed stereotypes by glorifying the practice of othering. It pisses me off to know that anti-immigrant sentiment is so pervasive that a show like this could come into existence without so much as a yelp of outcry. The kinds of attitudes glamorized in this tripe have very real and very serious consequences for people of color inside this country and out.
It's just gross. Tell ABC how dangerous this is with me.
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Actually, that is the job of a Homeland Security Agent (which is a made up term as it's several different federal agencies conglomerated a bit under an umbrella. It would only prove to be racist if they puts modifiers indicating people of color in it - i.e. immigrants from our southern border. The description itself isn't racist because it makes no attempt to tell you who these baddies are -- just that their job is to seek them out and bring them to justice.
Homeland Security is INS, TSA, FEMA, the Air Marshalls and some other agencies. It is exactly their job to do that description listed. It's ABC's deal whether or not they show, say, a Swedish illegal immigrant or a Russian drug trafficker, but the job description and the show description itself really isn't racist. That really is what these agencies do.
My SO caught this the other night and was laughing at it. I'd say, from the 20 minutes I saw, it's about 50 percent not terrible, 25 percent funny, and 25 percent eye-rollingly "patriotic."
It's kind of like COPS. I was a little impressed at some of the professionalism of many of the workers in homeland security in the ways they were able to read people and situations to find where the hidden drugs and/or people were in the car. I was also impressed at the lengths people go to in order to get drugs and/or people into the country.
There were a few parts that I hated. In one case, after finding hundreds of dollars worth of narcotics, which was completely impressive, the agent had to say something like, "I'm glad these are off the streets because drug money goes to terrorists." :rolly eyes:
It's not a good show and it does play on people's fear and prejudices at times. But it mostly shows people doing an interesting job (whether one agrees with homeland security and its policies or not) and genuinely trying to do their best at it. I won't watch it again, but I wasn't horribly offended by it, either.
If there was any attempt at racism in the description you quoted, it was very veiled. Undocumented immigrants don't just include those from Mexico. There are many non-Hispanic people who attempt to gain illegal entry to our country, Mexico and the surrounding countries aren't the only ones.
Perhaps ABC's story was a overly patriotic (as most things in the US are), but if they don't make it sound dramatic, no one would watch it. And while Homeland Security is largely a puppet organization for the elite, they do provide a valuable service in stopping certain items (and people) from entering the country. Imagine what the country would be like without customs agents.
By the way, the drug trade is controlled by organized crime, which is also involved in the intimidation and murder of anyone who gets in their way (i.e., terrorism). Maybe the guard on TV was a little overly dramatic, but as I have already written............
The world is not black and white; there are many shades of grey.
What do you men homeland security is a puppet organization for the elite?
The department of homeland security, which encompasses approximately nine different federal security agencies has within its power to imprison any person in essentially any country in the world without providing cause or reason, for indefinite periods, and without the right to legal counsel. What this means is that the US government has the power to (il)legally imprison anyone who speaks out about anything (for instance, against having a vice president who is on a defense contractor's payroll).
The US government has been doing that long before Homeland Security was created.
As security expert Bruce Schneier, you can see his blog "Schneier on Security", that the TSA at airports is really "security theater" an elaborate show to make us feel safe. He points out major flaws in the security model and cites cases when penetrated.
"Homeland Security. A waste of time and resources, We'll never find them this way. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in this world. Only 20% of them are Arabs. These people could look like anybody." - Agent Clayton from the movie Traitor
I am less concerned with Homeland Security than blanket "anti-terrorist" policies that are abused to suspend the civil liberties of the innocent majority.
So, then your point is that all terrorists are Muslims but not all Muslims are Arabs?
That the TSA is ineffective against a threat that stems past racial division and vilifies Arabs.
The term "Homeland Security" just rubs me the wrong way, as it just reeks of nationalism. But I haven't seen it, so I'm not going to say it's automatically racist.
I have a problem with just about all cop shows in that they glorify the police and portray them as always being just, thoughtful, and right. So this does seem like propaganda to me, in the same way all cop shows do.
Incidentally, the police force and sheriff depts here got a bunch of Homeland Security funds, and they spend them on the most ridiculous things. It's basically just a huge joke.
This show (or some incarnation of it) originally aired here in Australia. From what I saw of it, it didn't really come across as demonising particular cultures/faiths.
The majority of what was aired in Border Security was people whose visas had run out and were making a scene, people who didn't want to be searched and were making a scene - basically people making scenes; the formula to any successful reality TV show. It's not really that bad a show, but of course I can't say anything about the American version.
let's make that "every historian", shall we. You need not be an ungodly scientist to say that, and I assume it's not heresy(?). Because anybody who has read a just enough of the Bible to know that it takes place in Palestine and that Jesus and his parents were from that area would know bedroom furniture that. Of course they are not "white". They would be brown/olive-tanned Middle Easterners.