"Mexican" Means You Too!

On Friday, I met a Senegalese shop keeper. A man sat in the front of his store and was quiet as everyone else was laughing and talking. I joked about him being quiet. The shop keeper explained that he had recently arrived from Senegal and did not speak English. To which I replied, "he got in under the trump administration?". He laughed and said "he ain't trying to stop us, he's blocking Mexicans"...

He can't be serious right now... I guess he is not reading the papers about how the occupier is deporting or planning to deport thousands of Ghanaians and Haitians. He obviously has a false and frightening sense of comfort believing that he is not included in the round up. I guess he did not hear the "shithole" comment either. SMH...

It is scary to be so detached that even when it is happening right in your face, when it could happen to you or your loved ones, you are oblivious... It is scary to live in a country and not understand the unspoken...

This makes me think of the Brown folks who were not Mexican but who voted for the jackass and then landed on the news crying their Brown eyes out when their loved ones got deported or turned around at the airport despite having followed procedures. Some folks seem not to know what it really means to have natural melanin, not gifted by the sun, in one's skin in America... They don't understand the depth and breadth of disdain of some for people of color (POC), that there are no exceptions and that "Mexican" is a code word that means YOU TOO...

The attack right now is on Brown or Black people but Yellow folks should not be feeling so comfortable. History tells us, and them too if they read, that ultimately their time will come. Normally I don't like the term people of color. It sometimes allows one to skirt the real issue or matter at hand and not be specific about or to whom one really speaks. Often it is too broad implying that POC share similar experiences, circumstances, concerns, expectations and/or responses. Of course we don't. Not in most situations... In this instance however...

I am reminded of the now seemingly forgotten but famous quote by Martin Niemoller, a German Pastor humane and brave enough to speak out against hitler's inhumanity.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out

— Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out

— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out

— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me

—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Apathy is dangerous and silence is complicity when there is a racist mad man occupying the white house. Contain him/it! ALWAYS speak out... Don't wait until it happens to you. By then, the train has departed the station, is off the track and fully derailed. Your voice will have no impact. It will fall on deaf ears as a precedent has been allowed to have been set. 

You ARE your Brother's Keeper... 

It is YOUR duty to #resist!