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It’s all over the news. There are missing kids. Migrant kids. Somehow they got lost, possibly to traffickers, no one with a heart really knows. I mean, someone knows. But no one with a heart.
Then there are the kids separated from their parents at the border. Children taken out of the arms of their mothers and put into state custody. Jeff Sessions believes this will be a deterrent for people wanting to cross into America. We’ll take your babies, he threatened. And now they’re taking babies.
But let’s be clear. These aren’t just children we’re talking about. They’re brown children, which makes all the difference. Apparently, and according to the Trump administration and anyone who supports the Trump administration, children have a pecking order. White ones are at the top, of course, white American ones.
But as for those brown babies, their future isn’t really a priority. The cruelty inflicted on families by separating them at the border isn’t taken into account. Those who are white Republican Trump supporters have made their views crystal clear all over social media: anyone who dares come into this country through improper channels deserves whatever fate befalls them. Fuck ’em. They should have known better. So what if they’re escaping violence, death threats, rape, poverty…don’t they know that Trump’s America doesn’t care? We’ve already proven that in the U.S. by the way we ignore racism and the rise of white supremacy, by the way we gang up on those who are most vulnerable and blame the helpless for being so helpless.
Both our shock and our apathy, in equal amounts it seems, are evident. If only there was nationwide outrage against the propaganda and dehumanization of migrants who are currently being abused and having their civil rights stripped from them in the name of American law and order. But only part of us are outraged. Only part of us see that these are people, not brown people, who need our help. These are children, not brown children, who need our support and compassion.
These are our children, not “those people’s” children.
Children who may end up in warehouses designed specifically for them after they’ve been separated from their mothers and fathers. Only some of us — the number withers under the fact that it’s not ALL of us — feel the immediate horror at the thought, while the others — a number only growing thanks to Trump — think “hey, maybe those warehouses would be a step up from what they’re used to” (actual conversation on Facebook) or “We gotta take care of our own people before those people” because it’s called “tough love” and they need to learn “not to break the law.”
I could write a whole other piece on how the statements above were made by Christ-loving people who consider themselves Christian first and foremost.
But fuck that. We all know very well that if Jesus were here he’d be on the border right now helping those in the greatest of need. We all know — even if, like me, we’re not even Christian — that Jesus wouldn’t have time for this law-abiding bullshit that people use to hide and mask their racism and inhumanity.
We are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis and if we were able to gather all of the peaceful thought leaders of all time — Jesus, Gandi, Confucius, Mother Teresa, Mandela, Buddha, M.L. King, and why not include John Lennon while we’re at it just to beef up the gang — we would have a better chance at stopping the human cruelty happening in our backyard, yet it’s important to realize that we’d still be up against those who don’t see children, who don’t see people suffering because of one reason only: they’re brown.
But if we travel beyond borders and transcend history (interesting how so many white Americans have such a short recall of history in their attempt at ownership of the U.S. as we know it today), we who are white may come to a quick reckoning and humbling of our beginnings when we remember who the actual natives are.
And what color they are. Especially the children. The brown children. The world’s children.
Our children.
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This post was originally published on Medium and is republished here with permission from the author.
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