Portside

Three years after the Fukushima disaster, 25,000 people evacuated from the region closest to the nuclear reactor station have been told that it will take 120 years before they can return safely to their homes. Tens of thousands of other evacuees who lived outside the most contaminated area, and who the government says will be able to return soon, say they will never return because of the ongoing danger of nuclear contamination.

The political manipulation of the irrational fear of immigrants spreading disease is part of an historic pattern in United States. The recent calls for a blanket prohibition on travel from West Africa is prejudice, plain, and simple: prejudging an entire group of people, based on the sickness of a small handful. They echo the kind of bigotry directed at other immigrant groups arriving in this country since the 1800s.