UNCERTAINTY

The Saturday morning after our return from Paris, I met Jenn for breakfast so we could chat about the things I missed while I was away. At some point Jenn said something about her upcoming trip to Mexico and how she was a little worried about getting back into this country. She asked me about our experience with customs and I told her how it went for us and also what I witnessed for others.

When Michael and I landed in Detroit, we had to go through customs. This involved a long line, border patrol, collecting checked bags and rechecking those bags. The line was slow moving and we got really stressed about missing our connecting flight. We saw people being rigorously questioned by border control, sometimes a person would be pulled from the line at random and held to one side. When it was our turn with border control, Michael and I walked up, they scanned our faces, asked us if we had any fruits or vegetables and then sent us on our way. They didn’t give a flip about my eight pounds of butter.

Every one of those people getting the extra questioning were people with brown skin. Every white person with zero ethnic qualities breezed right through. Our bags were not opened and riffled through. We were not pressed about how much money we’ve spent or how long we’ve been American citizens. So when Jenn asked me about getting through customs, I said “Look at your face. They will not even question you.” It’s sickening and unfair and gross. And at the time I said it, it was true. Systemic Racism has led us to believe that being white protects you. Thirty two people were murdered by ICE agents last year. Keith Porter was killed by an ICE agent on New Year’s Eve. But it is the murder of Renee Nicole Good takes away any illusion of safety. Not a single person in this country is safe from the harassment of Trump’s Thugs. ICE agents are nothing more than thugs. They are not law enforcement. They only have jurisdiction over immigration, but they continue to take lives in the name of the ‘law’.

Nothing about what they’re doing is legal.

I spent half of my week chaperoning teenagers at a thespian conference. Thousands of Missouri high school students gathered at the Union Station in St. Louis to attend various workshop and competitions. The second day of the conference, Michael and I were sitting at a table waiting for our group to check in from their morning activities and suddenly my eyes filled with tears as I watched all these kids moving about. It was Character Day and half of them were dressed up in various costumes. All I could think was how much we have failed them. Yet here they were walking around dressed as random theater characters as if we haven’t failed them. I’ve listened to them talk of their future plans and what’s next for them and I am floored by their innocence and hope. None of these kids have a look of terror to them even though the bubble we’ve placed them in is filled with holes. They can pretend they are safe and there was a time when I believed they were safe. “That would never happen here”, insert whatever terror for ‘that’, is something we can no longer say or believe. Because we know it can happen here.

Do not let them change a part of your souls that sees a fellow human being when you look at your neighbor. - Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago

We cannot afford to stand by silently while this administration continues to rip families apart and murder innocent people. If you see ICE detaining people in your community, REPORT it. You are legally allowed to film ICE agents. Call out to those being deported and remind them of their rights to remain silent and that they don’t have to sign anything. If ICE are detaining someone ask for a signed official warrant with the right name and date. Our role is to document; take note of the size, activity, location, unit and time of the event. If you can get family contact information from the person being deported, do so and then contact that family. These are small acts, but we all know about snowballs.

We owe it to those kids to fill the holes in their bubble so they can truly feel safe.