Racialized group surveillance weakens democracy and expands state power

Evidence

The surveillance practices the state has engaged in against Muslim Americans reveals major flaws in the state’s efforts to prevent another terrorist attack. The inefficient use of billions of dollars in resources toward surveillance that targets a whole population, the majority of whom are law-abiding citizens, based on racial stereotypes does not prevent terrorism. Instead, it strips citizens of their civil rights and the civil liberties they should be afforded through citizenship. When a society supports national security over civil liberties and expands the power of the state, freedom and democracy are weakened. But American history shows that freedom has always been denied to racialized groups like African Americans. While today it is Muslims, African Americans, and Latinx who may be the target of state surveillance, tomorrow it could be anyone. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 485

Categorization

• XREF: Closes the loop on the Global Racial Enemy slot this book replaces; echoes the COINTELPRO and surveillance-race literature in Beydoun, Rana, Sian. — connects to: Surveillance power erodes democracy from within rather than confronting it directly — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1211; Mass state surveillance laws target white citizens and Muslims with unequal public scrutiny — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 570; Grassroots activism linked racial profiling with police repression across groups (+1 more)