Playing the race card

Racial profiling is a key part of how I came to be under surveillance. My extreme sensitivity to social prejudice has made me an interesting case study for the government from the start, and they have learned much from my day-to-day adventures.

In a nutshell: growing global trends, and my own seemingly unbelievable experiences, suggest to me that playing upon racial stereotypes and encouraging social divisiveness will be a key strategy for increasing public conservatism - or apathy - and strengthening support from wealthy elites.

'Divide and Conquer' based on race and other social differences is powerful. With extensive psychological profiling (of individuals and groups), data mining, information storage, and other advanced surveillance technologies, there may be little room to resist.

Did you know one could be in a room with a bunch of average-seeming people, yet all these people could have tiny radios placed in their ears and be receiving instructions on where to go, and how to behave, from a central command point (usually someone observing from behind hidden cameras)?

That's what my hospitality experience in large venues has taught me.

(This device gives an idea, but I actually believe they have even smaller ones. There are also ones that merely amplify sound, costing as little as 20 bucks.)

What's feeding my dismal view today? I hadn't checked my family emails for awhile, and just read this message from my father:

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 11:39:01 -0700

HELLO KID:

GOT YOUR LTR. PLEASE DO NOT PAY TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO THOSE [harassment] ACTIVITIES . WE ALL HAVE TO LIVE OUR LIVES WITHOUT WORRYING TOO MUCH. ANYBODY DUMB ENOUGH TO DO THIS IS JUST WASTING TIME AND MONEY ON USELESS PURSUITS.

JUST IGNORE THEM. NO HARM WILL COME TO US. THE NICE
FELLOW UPSTAIRS WILL LOOK AFTER YOU AND ME.

VERY GLAD TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE MAKING GOOD PROGRESS.
HOPE YOU'LL HAVE THE BURDEN LIFTED SOON.

DAD

Maybe you can tell my father's a little tired of my worrying about surveillance.

A message from Pops - so what? Well, I opened my email box and found the colour settings had been changed.

I also found 46 spam messages in my Bulk email folder, beginning on the same day as my father's message (August 31), and continuing till the present. These are the only messages in my Bulk folder. (see below)

All the messages have attachments and use similar Subject titles ('Your document,' 'Your picture,' 'Your website,' etc). Most seem to originate from Asia, or from people with Asian names.


(Click on image to enlarge.)


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What the government expects people to do is to cast a negative and suspicious slant on both my family and myself based on ethnicity. What a joke. But you know what? It works.

They've watched it work for the past several years, as I've faced constant prejudice and racism in our extremely multicultural city. Social divisions are growing, and economic resources are increasingly strained - a sure recipe for trouble. (I've written before about Canada's need to build social bridges, foster national unity, and help strengthen the country, as a whole. Files to come.)

I admit many situations have been exacerbated by my own state of emotional unwellness, social ineptness, hypersensitivity, and reactiveness. I'm also pretty attune to underlying tensions (too much so). Plus I often provide running commentaries or retrospective analyses on things, like interracial politics, and I have often commented on how Asian/Chinese people (we all look the same...) are fast becoming the most resented ethnic group in Canada.

So what?

By surveilling me, the government has been able to observe the social havoc I often create (not intentionally), and how much I *push people's buttons*. I believe they've learned to pay close attention to subtle cues in how people speak (tone, inflection), behave, respond, interact, and so on - and may focus particularly on the power dynamics around race, gender, orientation, and so on. This has likely made their covert operational activities many times more effective and far-reaching.

Put it this way: my 'theories of social oppression' are borne out of lived reality on a daily basis. *If* my interactions are being actively recorded and analyzed, then testing out and recreating certain situations could help intelligence agencies develop useful strategies for social control. It's powerful research data.

Several of my relatives are third- and fourth-generation Canadians of Asian ancestry, and some have written books on cultural identity. This isn't a reason to surveille me, but it does fill out the picture a bit.

The irony is, my entire family did not believe me for three long years. Average, middle-class, educated folks we all are. With the exception of myself, all of my extended family have careers and are mostly professionals. Yet racism works in such a way that one can become a nobody and a miscreant in the blink of an eye.

Correction: There are a couple of exceptional individuals in my family. If I talked about them, people might see that what I'm saying is not so crazy.

Government security bodies are extremely interested in studying different ethnic groups. Unfortunately, they're goal is to undermine social power, rather than ensure real security, or foster commitment from people towards strengthening the country.

I'm all for tightening immigration. Started contemplating this problem about two decades ago. But it's complicated, and from what I've experienced of surveillance and harassment, and presume is happening to others (including physical harm), I don't have much confidence that positive solutions are being sought.

To clarify, again, the reasons I've been surveilled for so long are:

1) racial profiling;
2) having passionate ideas for socio-environmental action and change;
3) outspoken commentary on social inequalities, particularly around race;
4) my unusual interactions with people and extreme impact on others' behaviour.