I was 12 years old when Jose M, a soft-spoken, light brown boy, was assigned the desk next to mine in social studies class. His smile and his eyes were gentle, and he always wore a clean and well-ironed shirt, though I noticed that it was always one of two shirts, which rotated on a daily basis. I began crushing on him because he always took class seriously, writing reams of notes and treating the teacher to his complete attention. Which meant he never as much as looked my way. Sadly. But even if he had, my grandmother used to send me to school in homemade calico dresses, which she sewed herself. (Like the Coat of Many Colors Dolly Parton sang so movingly about, I loved them because she made each stitch by hand,) She also plastered my flyaway hair to my head with about a hundred bobby pins, as if afraid it would otherwise cause a commotion. At any rate, after 8th grade I moved to another town and we lost touch. But one day, years later I saw a notice in my hometown paper that a Jose M had been accepted into Harvard, and I rejoiced. I never knew if he was one of those Mexicanos whose family had been in the state, like, for 150 years longer than mine had, or the son of recent immigrants. Just relating this little story as a way to smash a few idiot prejudices before I eat lunch. Here's to you, Jose, wherever you are now.
As is always the case, any allegation by Trump and by extension the right is always a confession. As in the case of immigration. For years, Republicans have been insisting that Democrats wanted to admit immigrants for political purposes, that is, to gain electoral advantage. No surprise to learn that the Republicans want only immigrants with their approved skin color. I assume this also applied to their desire to increase the birth rate…as long as the new babies are white.
Of course, neither strategy will achieve what the right wants. Those hoped for white immigrants are likely to have some serious reservations about emigrating to an authoritarian state. Want proof? Look at Russia.
Aside from the White supremacists of South Africa, there will never be a throng of white Europeans clamoring to give up their healthcare, educational benefits and other parts of the social safety net that exists in most of Europe.
Who the hell wants to come to America for a new life when foreign journalists get shot at, European scientists get deported for visiting a US conference, tourists get interrogated for hours at the airport and Canadian work visa citizens end up in a jail cell for weeks? How messed up that we are now on the list of dangerous countries to avoid visiting. GOP is getting their isolationist prayer answered.
Yep. Although when immigration was by a large majority "white" the US decided at various times that Irish people, Jews, people from Eastern Europe, and Italians and other people from the Mediterranean (Greeks, Portuguese . . .) were not "white."
Sheri, your great-grandparents were acceptable white people. My ancestors--Greek and Ashkenazi Jews from the Pale of Settlement--were heavily restricted from entering the USA and there were highly regulated quotas for such immigration. Half of my Jewish great-grandfather's siblings never made it to the USA and they and all my other relatives who remained in what is now Ukraine and Belarus were wiped out by the Nazis and Stalin.
I arrived into adulthood having read "A Spark of Life" by Erich Maria Remarque, "Mila 18" by Leon Uris, "Spartacus," "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" (early 60s), many books by James Kjelgaard between ages 7 and 10, and other books that did more for centering my moral compass than my parents and any teacher. All of these taught me about the wrongs we face throughout life and about doing our best to keep strong and stand up for what's right. The book that most shocked and horrified me, though, was one of photographs that my sister brought back from Germany in 1968 or 1969? Can't remember. It was of death camp victims -- and that's when "A Spark of Life" and "Mila 18" took on a palpable REAL horror. Before when it was words on pages, though very tough reading, it was not in the same gut-wrenching league as facing the stark terrible reality in those brutal B&W images of man's hideous inhumanity to man. That shattered me.
No, it’s not a history for the faint of heart. But it's one necessary to know in order to be part of stopping it from happening again.
It’s why I don’t “do” war movies. For me it was The Painted Bird and Catch 22, and pretty much everything by Kurt Vonnegut, which haunt me to this day.
I hear you on this -- but I do war movies anyway. Not just war movies, but those films focused on the suffering caused. These reinforce my moral opposition to war of all kinds and my determination to keep my moral compass and actively participate in standing against that which foments the worst in humankind. I may have degenerating discs in my back, but these help keep my spine straight.
There’s no border crisis. There’s a vision crisis. A conscience crisis. A crisis of whiteness afraid of its own shrinking shadow.
Let’s drop the polite language and say it plain: this isn’t about paperwork. It never has been. If it were, we wouldn’t have white Europeans overstaying visas by the thousands without a single jackboot ICE raid in sight. We wouldn’t see Norwegian au pairs and Russian students gliding through customs without cages or ankle monitors.
No—this is about color.
We are watching, in real time, what happens when pigmentation becomes pretext. When skin becomes suspicion. When brownness alone is enough to condemn a soul to concrete floors, chain-link pens, and a system designed not to process but to punish. Not to sort truth from falsehood but to sow terror and obedience.
You want a historical parallel? It’s there—on every page of American history. The fugitive slave patrols didn’t ask for ownership papers from white men riding through. Jim Crow didn’t check the spelling of your name before deciding your school, your water fountain, or your seat on the bus. The Chinese Exclusion Act didn’t target Swedes. And Ellis Island didn’t break apart Irish families at gunpoint.
This is not about “law and order.” It’s about maintaining a caste system by other means.
And we’ve seen this strategy before—just under different flags.
Blame the outsider. Dehumanize the other. Stoke fear until reason breaks down and people cheer for cruelty. It worked in Berlin. It worked in Kigali. And now it’s on rotation every night on cable news, just with more commercial breaks.
What’s most damning—and most devastating—is that so many who claim the name of Christ now cheer for the crucifiers. They pound their pulpits and pass the plate while defending a policy that would’ve chased Mary and Joseph from the stable. They sing about grace while applauding state-sponsored trauma. They call it Christian duty while locking up children. As if Jesus ever said, “I was a stranger and you tear-gassed me.”
Let’s not pretend anymore. The silent are not confused—they are complicit.
And to those still clinging to the myth that this is about “doing it the right way,” I ask: what is the right way when the gate is rigged, when the door is barred, and the judge already has your face on a blacklist?
What is the right way to flee war?
What is the legal method for escaping gang rape, cartel recruitment, or child slavery?
What is the correct application form when your village is under water and your crops have failed from drought caused by decisions made in countries far away?
If compassion is contingent on complexion, it isn’t compassion. It’s currency. And it is bankrupt.
So yes, this post is exactly right. If these immigrants were white, they’d be met with outreach ministries and welcome baskets. With job placement services and Habitat for Humanity. Not shackles. Not separation. Not state violence wrapped in the flag.
But they are not white—and so they are rendered as threat. And to that I say: not in my name. Not with my silence. Not under my flag. And not under a Constitution I swore to uphold for over 40 years.
Because here’s the thing: you can only build a lie like this for so long before the rot shows. You can only scapegoat, dehumanize, and brutalize before a reckoning comes. And if the people in power won’t make it right, then we will.
With our votes. With our voices. With our refusal to look away.
And with our unwavering belief that dignity is not negotiable—no matter where you were born, what you carry, or what color your skin might be.
Worse horror story than Stephen King could conjure. Myth of white supremacy, promoted by inferior white people, swallowed by gullible, false-news-Fox puppets.
I’m a Mexican-American and I’ve never looked at myself being different. But, under Trump his speeches and policies wishes to separate us. I look forward to June 14th when Trump will see people of all colors are united. America is GOD’s country NOT Trump’s country!
I think you need to look at the horrendous way that white refugees from the dust bowl were treated by people when trying to immigrate to California to support their families. Or as others have said their white, but Jewish, or Irish ancestors were treated by our country. People will always find a scapegoat to fixate on. Right now it is people who have brown skin.
It has always been people who have brown skin, or skin a color that is not white. Look back on how indigenous peoples were treated, and slaves brought from Africa, or the Chinese used to build our railroads, and so on.
But yes, those people with small minds & smaller hearts will always find a scapegoat to fixate on -- anything but look at one's own actions and behaviors. They are not known for self-awareness.
Sad but true - some Americans hate or fear brown skin so much that they are willing to militarize our cities, crash our economy when workers disappear, exhibit immorality without a thought. When will Americans wake up to what we are becoming?
VERY TRUE! With this one exception: "crash our economy when workers disappear"... The workers aren't just disappearing of their own volition -- they are being disappeared.
More accurately, then: They are willing to crash our economy in order to disappear non-white workers -- they're just fine with "disappearing" people of color. And they don't care how our corrupt gov't does it -- violence, ripping families apart, murder -- it's all okey-dokey by them. And that's all people of color, as well as easily identifiable Muslims, particularly those other scapegoats du jour, Palestinians and, again, Jews.
Melania became the poster child and inspiration for many many MAGAts when she notoriously wore, when visiting the suffering caged immigrants during DJT's 1st term, that infamous jacket which said: "I DON'T CARE - DO U?"
With that display of heartlessness, she effectively invited rampant racism out of the closet.
Not like it needed help getting out into the open -- Orange Shitler had already made it freakily clear that he stood with white supremacists: "There are fine people on both sides."
I somewhat agree with you and it might last for a while. But I believe trump and his cult following will always need someone to ridicule, condemn, be better than and hurt. They seem to me to be unhappy people who will storm over anyone who gets in their way — people of color or white people whom they feel are unworthy.
There would be no immigrant “ problem” if they were all white.
The people of the old South kidnapped and forced black men and women here for the purpose of working their farms and plantations for free.
They abused them in every way possible and treated them terribly , removing kids from parents wives from husbands . We’ve come full circle , now insisting they tear apart their families in the same savage way we did the kidnapped Africans. But now, to insist they leave . These people are still the backbone of manual labor . But now we trash their lives and our country by the actions of self righteous White Supremacist “ Christians”.
I'm back. I've resurfaced after going into a deep depression trying to get my family to understand and to be compassionate and you know all of the above and then I finally had another breakthrough that I've been smashing my head into the concrete wanting something that they're incapable of you. See I'm calvinist raised so indoctrinated and they still all are and they have that wall. They cannot see me. I can't even get in. So once again I have to look at myself and give myself what I so desperately desperately want from them. Boy this thing called life
I wish you were wrong but you are correct. This is about white nationalism. And the evil Stephen Miller who hates people of color, is engaged in an ethnic cleansing when it comes right down to it with the blessing of the right. Miller is apparently coordinating this over the top and down right lawless detention of immigrants.
I was 12 years old when Jose M, a soft-spoken, light brown boy, was assigned the desk next to mine in social studies class. His smile and his eyes were gentle, and he always wore a clean and well-ironed shirt, though I noticed that it was always one of two shirts, which rotated on a daily basis. I began crushing on him because he always took class seriously, writing reams of notes and treating the teacher to his complete attention. Which meant he never as much as looked my way. Sadly. But even if he had, my grandmother used to send me to school in homemade calico dresses, which she sewed herself. (Like the Coat of Many Colors Dolly Parton sang so movingly about, I loved them because she made each stitch by hand,) She also plastered my flyaway hair to my head with about a hundred bobby pins, as if afraid it would otherwise cause a commotion. At any rate, after 8th grade I moved to another town and we lost touch. But one day, years later I saw a notice in my hometown paper that a Jose M had been accepted into Harvard, and I rejoiced. I never knew if he was one of those Mexicanos whose family had been in the state, like, for 150 years longer than mine had, or the son of recent immigrants. Just relating this little story as a way to smash a few idiot prejudices before I eat lunch. Here's to you, Jose, wherever you are now.
Thank you for this!! 🥰🥰🥰
As is always the case, any allegation by Trump and by extension the right is always a confession. As in the case of immigration. For years, Republicans have been insisting that Democrats wanted to admit immigrants for political purposes, that is, to gain electoral advantage. No surprise to learn that the Republicans want only immigrants with their approved skin color. I assume this also applied to their desire to increase the birth rate…as long as the new babies are white.
Of course, neither strategy will achieve what the right wants. Those hoped for white immigrants are likely to have some serious reservations about emigrating to an authoritarian state. Want proof? Look at Russia.
Aside from the White supremacists of South Africa, there will never be a throng of white Europeans clamoring to give up their healthcare, educational benefits and other parts of the social safety net that exists in most of Europe.
Sorry Donald.
Who the hell wants to come to America for a new life when foreign journalists get shot at, European scientists get deported for visiting a US conference, tourists get interrogated for hours at the airport and Canadian work visa citizens end up in a jail cell for weeks? How messed up that we are now on the list of dangerous countries to avoid visiting. GOP is getting their isolationist prayer answered.
Yep. Although when immigration was by a large majority "white" the US decided at various times that Irish people, Jews, people from Eastern Europe, and Italians and other people from the Mediterranean (Greeks, Portuguese . . .) were not "white."
I know, right? Hypocrisy is the rightwing oxygen.
My gg grandparents all arrived from Western Europe and Norway in the 1800's, when the US had open borders.
No papers, just of the boat with a bag of belongings.
I would happily volunteer to be deported back to Norway.
Sheri, your great-grandparents were acceptable white people. My ancestors--Greek and Ashkenazi Jews from the Pale of Settlement--were heavily restricted from entering the USA and there were highly regulated quotas for such immigration. Half of my Jewish great-grandfather's siblings never made it to the USA and they and all my other relatives who remained in what is now Ukraine and Belarus were wiped out by the Nazis and Stalin.
I "liked" this to show my support -- but it breaks my heart.
DITTO!
Thanks Floof: it’s not a history for the faint of heart.
No, it most definitely is not.
I arrived into adulthood having read "A Spark of Life" by Erich Maria Remarque, "Mila 18" by Leon Uris, "Spartacus," "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" (early 60s), many books by James Kjelgaard between ages 7 and 10, and other books that did more for centering my moral compass than my parents and any teacher. All of these taught me about the wrongs we face throughout life and about doing our best to keep strong and stand up for what's right. The book that most shocked and horrified me, though, was one of photographs that my sister brought back from Germany in 1968 or 1969? Can't remember. It was of death camp victims -- and that's when "A Spark of Life" and "Mila 18" took on a palpable REAL horror. Before when it was words on pages, though very tough reading, it was not in the same gut-wrenching league as facing the stark terrible reality in those brutal B&W images of man's hideous inhumanity to man. That shattered me.
No, it’s not a history for the faint of heart. But it's one necessary to know in order to be part of stopping it from happening again.
It’s why I don’t “do” war movies. For me it was The Painted Bird and Catch 22, and pretty much everything by Kurt Vonnegut, which haunt me to this day.
I hear you on this -- but I do war movies anyway. Not just war movies, but those films focused on the suffering caused. These reinforce my moral opposition to war of all kinds and my determination to keep my moral compass and actively participate in standing against that which foments the worst in humankind. I may have degenerating discs in my back, but these help keep my spine straight.
I am first born Danish-American & feel the same way! "Happy, healthy" trumps whatever we want to call "this shit-show"
Yes.
There’s no border crisis. There’s a vision crisis. A conscience crisis. A crisis of whiteness afraid of its own shrinking shadow.
Let’s drop the polite language and say it plain: this isn’t about paperwork. It never has been. If it were, we wouldn’t have white Europeans overstaying visas by the thousands without a single jackboot ICE raid in sight. We wouldn’t see Norwegian au pairs and Russian students gliding through customs without cages or ankle monitors.
No—this is about color.
We are watching, in real time, what happens when pigmentation becomes pretext. When skin becomes suspicion. When brownness alone is enough to condemn a soul to concrete floors, chain-link pens, and a system designed not to process but to punish. Not to sort truth from falsehood but to sow terror and obedience.
You want a historical parallel? It’s there—on every page of American history. The fugitive slave patrols didn’t ask for ownership papers from white men riding through. Jim Crow didn’t check the spelling of your name before deciding your school, your water fountain, or your seat on the bus. The Chinese Exclusion Act didn’t target Swedes. And Ellis Island didn’t break apart Irish families at gunpoint.
This is not about “law and order.” It’s about maintaining a caste system by other means.
And we’ve seen this strategy before—just under different flags.
Blame the outsider. Dehumanize the other. Stoke fear until reason breaks down and people cheer for cruelty. It worked in Berlin. It worked in Kigali. And now it’s on rotation every night on cable news, just with more commercial breaks.
What’s most damning—and most devastating—is that so many who claim the name of Christ now cheer for the crucifiers. They pound their pulpits and pass the plate while defending a policy that would’ve chased Mary and Joseph from the stable. They sing about grace while applauding state-sponsored trauma. They call it Christian duty while locking up children. As if Jesus ever said, “I was a stranger and you tear-gassed me.”
Let’s not pretend anymore. The silent are not confused—they are complicit.
And to those still clinging to the myth that this is about “doing it the right way,” I ask: what is the right way when the gate is rigged, when the door is barred, and the judge already has your face on a blacklist?
What is the right way to flee war?
What is the legal method for escaping gang rape, cartel recruitment, or child slavery?
What is the correct application form when your village is under water and your crops have failed from drought caused by decisions made in countries far away?
If compassion is contingent on complexion, it isn’t compassion. It’s currency. And it is bankrupt.
So yes, this post is exactly right. If these immigrants were white, they’d be met with outreach ministries and welcome baskets. With job placement services and Habitat for Humanity. Not shackles. Not separation. Not state violence wrapped in the flag.
But they are not white—and so they are rendered as threat. And to that I say: not in my name. Not with my silence. Not under my flag. And not under a Constitution I swore to uphold for over 40 years.
Because here’s the thing: you can only build a lie like this for so long before the rot shows. You can only scapegoat, dehumanize, and brutalize before a reckoning comes. And if the people in power won’t make it right, then we will.
With our votes. With our voices. With our refusal to look away.
And with our unwavering belief that dignity is not negotiable—no matter where you were born, what you carry, or what color your skin might be.
Again brilliant, Dino! Thank you.
Truth. It's all about patriarchal white supremacy. And it is not only BS it is evil and I rarely use that word...........(Rev LJH)
Eloquent.
Facts.
Worse horror story than Stephen King could conjure. Myth of white supremacy, promoted by inferior white people, swallowed by gullible, false-news-Fox puppets.
I’m a Mexican-American and I’ve never looked at myself being different. But, under Trump his speeches and policies wishes to separate us. I look forward to June 14th when Trump will see people of all colors are united. America is GOD’s country NOT Trump’s country!
This has been a tearful week. Your words ring true. Sadly so. “Jesus wept”.
Thank you, John. Sad but true.
I think you need to look at the horrendous way that white refugees from the dust bowl were treated by people when trying to immigrate to California to support their families. Or as others have said their white, but Jewish, or Irish ancestors were treated by our country. People will always find a scapegoat to fixate on. Right now it is people who have brown skin.
It has always been people who have brown skin, or skin a color that is not white. Look back on how indigenous peoples were treated, and slaves brought from Africa, or the Chinese used to build our railroads, and so on.
But yes, those people with small minds & smaller hearts will always find a scapegoat to fixate on -- anything but look at one's own actions and behaviors. They are not known for self-awareness.
Sad but true - some Americans hate or fear brown skin so much that they are willing to militarize our cities, crash our economy when workers disappear, exhibit immorality without a thought. When will Americans wake up to what we are becoming?
VERY TRUE! With this one exception: "crash our economy when workers disappear"... The workers aren't just disappearing of their own volition -- they are being disappeared.
More accurately, then: They are willing to crash our economy in order to disappear non-white workers -- they're just fine with "disappearing" people of color. And they don't care how our corrupt gov't does it -- violence, ripping families apart, murder -- it's all okey-dokey by them. And that's all people of color, as well as easily identifiable Muslims, particularly those other scapegoats du jour, Palestinians and, again, Jews.
Melania became the poster child and inspiration for many many MAGAts when she notoriously wore, when visiting the suffering caged immigrants during DJT's 1st term, that infamous jacket which said: "I DON'T CARE - DO U?"
With that display of heartlessness, she effectively invited rampant racism out of the closet.
Not like it needed help getting out into the open -- Orange Shitler had already made it freakily clear that he stood with white supremacists: "There are fine people on both sides."
Vomit. gak gak gak
I somewhat agree with you and it might last for a while. But I believe trump and his cult following will always need someone to ridicule, condemn, be better than and hurt. They seem to me to be unhappy people who will storm over anyone who gets in their way — people of color or white people whom they feel are unworthy.
Such as non-MAGAts.
There would be no immigrant “ problem” if they were all white.
The people of the old South kidnapped and forced black men and women here for the purpose of working their farms and plantations for free.
They abused them in every way possible and treated them terribly , removing kids from parents wives from husbands . We’ve come full circle , now insisting they tear apart their families in the same savage way we did the kidnapped Africans. But now, to insist they leave . These people are still the backbone of manual labor . But now we trash their lives and our country by the actions of self righteous White Supremacist “ Christians”.
This is pure evil .
I'm back. I've resurfaced after going into a deep depression trying to get my family to understand and to be compassionate and you know all of the above and then I finally had another breakthrough that I've been smashing my head into the concrete wanting something that they're incapable of you. See I'm calvinist raised so indoctrinated and they still all are and they have that wall. They cannot see me. I can't even get in. So once again I have to look at myself and give myself what I so desperately desperately want from them. Boy this thing called life
Yep, boy howdy, that thing called life -- you said a mouthful there! I've been where you are and I know what you mean. Best of luck, Peggy!
I wish you were wrong but you are correct. This is about white nationalism. And the evil Stephen Miller who hates people of color, is engaged in an ethnic cleansing when it comes right down to it with the blessing of the right. Miller is apparently coordinating this over the top and down right lawless detention of immigrants.