“So It’s Not A Surprise That We Are Here At This Moment”

Of course marginalized folks have historically resisted throughout history and continue to resist today, but I thought it necessary to share this powerful quote. Many thanks to JaeRan Kim for bringing this to my attention through her resource sharing and advocacy.

“We are not a nation of immigrants, but instead a white settler nation, a nation that colonized and settled the lands of indigenous peoples, forcibly enslaved peoples from Africa, and welcomed immigrants only from Europe and even then, primarily from western Europe, as we developed the idea of whiteness and set that up as our ruling ideal. We are a nation that opened our doors only when we expected certain kinds of people to enter and only when we needed their labor. Closing the golden door is not new for us, nor does it come as just one action. We need to understand that when Trump closes the door against certain groups of Muslims and temporarily bans refugees, that is the opening move for closing the door to more groups of people and permanently banning refugees and others. We have seen this happen before: Asian exclusion followed by a wholesale tightening of immigration. The door that started shutting in the late 1800s by targeting Asians first didn’t open until 1965. And even then, we only expected Europeans to enter, because we didn’t think Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans could meet the labor/professional requirements or the family reunification criteria. So it’s not a surprise that we are here at this moment. It has been brewing since at least the 1990s with Prop. 187 in California.The only answer is resistance, and I am so glad to know so many people who are out there fighting as lawyers and demonstrating as concerned, righteous people.”

-Ji-Yeon Yuh

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones