Race has always gated participation in American democratic discourse

Evidence

The notion that we have always been a society where anyone could participate in public discourse is a false one. Race has always determined who could and could not be a part of the democratic process in the United States. The exclusion of anyone who was not a free white man from accessing citizenship reflects this truth about public discourse and democracy. While the War on Drugs maintained a system of oppression and surveillance of African Americans, the War on Terror places Muslim bodies under the watchful eye of the state and citizens, resulting in their exclusion from participation in democratic processes. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 452

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the War on Drugs-to-War on Terror continuity that Beydoun and Sian trace; anchors the reader’s map of surveillance regimes.