A Heartbreaking Vote: The Implications of #Brexit For Equality and Social Justice December 13, 2019 by Gillian Brown Leave a Comment Editor's note: In light of the December 2019 Conservative electoral landslide in the UK and its impact on the future of Britain, Brexit, and the EU, we are re-publishing this article -- originally written July 3, 2016 -- to provide important context about what Brexit means today. Thursday 72% of the adult population of the UK voted in what has been dubbed one of the most … [Read more...]
Not Easy, Still Worth It: 4 Strategies for White People to Address a Racist Relative’s Racism November 26, 2019 by Ginger Stickney Leave a Comment A great distance separates me from my family. Not just geographical -- they live in Maine and I live in Georgia -- but also the distance of identity. I am a leftist agnostic who practices a vague form of religious expression that encompasses paganism and Catholicism. They are right-wingers with a strong belief in evangelical Christianity. Conversations at the Thanksgiving … [Read more...]
Why White North Americans Need To Understand Ourselves as “Settlers” November 4, 2019 by Shannon Weber Leave a Comment If you’re white, this land was not made for you and me. Like many white North Americans, I grew up with a vague idea of where my ancestors came from. In my case, they were scattered across Western Europe, and I was fascinated by what their lives must have been like. But I had no real connection to what it means, culturally, to be Irish or Scottish or British or German or … [Read more...]
6 Ways to Love Yourself When You’re Undocumented in the US August 28, 2019 by Ella Mendoza Leave a Comment From one immigrant to another, I know many people will say you could've done "it" differently. We are judged, demonized, and under constant attack. The broken US immigration system, meanwhile, tries to intimidate us into believing we have no choices left, that we must accept whatever fate a judge decides for us. But remember that your migration to this country meant choosing … [Read more...]
5 formas de apoyar a personas indocumentadas August 25, 2019 by Emanuel Urrea and Palmira Muniz Leave a Comment Como nación estamos viviendo en tiempos que dan miedo. Y aun cuando esa afirmación es la obviedad del siglo hay un grupo demográfico en particular que está bajo ataque en estos momentos. Como persona que trabaja educando estudiantes de color, cuyos padres pueden o no ser indocumentados, así como estudiantes indocumentados, he notado un cambio de actitud de su parte. He notado … [Read more...]
The Strain of “Model Minority”: Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders July 30, 2019 by Julie Feng 1 Comment Just last year, when a person very close to me admitted she was struggling with depression, my initial internal reaction was disbelief. This can’t be true, I thought. My next thought was mortification for feeling this way. Why was it that I, a socially conscious person who believes strongly in mental health advocacy, immediately felt incredulity? I had to be honest with … [Read more...]
#CloseTheCamps: No 4th of July While Children Die July 3, 2019 by Shannon Weber Leave a Comment On July 2nd, I participated in a #CloseTheCamps rally demanding that the illegal concentration camps for undocumented children and their families -- with 71% of migrants being held in for-profit facilities as of November 2017 -- be shut down. I stood on the sidewalk of a local park with about 60 other protesters as we held signs and rattled noisemakers, chanting and begging our … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Support Undocumented Folks June 24, 2019 by Palmira Muniz Leave a Comment As a nation, we are living through a very scary time. And while that may be the understatement of the century, there are particular demographics under attack right now. As a person who works in educating students of color, whose parents may or may not be undocumented, as well as educating undocumented students, I have noticed a shift in their attitudes. I’ve seem some … [Read more...]
How Being a Black Child of Immigrants Complicates Your Relationship With America November 2, 2018 by Tiffany Lee Leave a Comment I’m not Black. I remember being very young and my mother telling me this. She wasn’t defensive or upset that I had asked her the question. She was simply stating a fact. I’m not Black. I’m Jamaican. She had never even considered herself Black until moving to this country as a teenager and encountering the term on immigration papers and then soon after, encountering the reality … [Read more...]
Kidnapping, Jailing, and Abusing Immigrant Children Is Body Terrorism August 16, 2018 by Shannon Weber Leave a Comment I live in a country where millions of people avert their gaze from or even celebrate the jailing of children, torn from their parents and often trafficked across state lines. Apparently it’s acceptable to commit human rights abuses against a population if you’ve already dehumanized them to your supporters, made an exception because as “illegal aliens”, they’re not quite the … [Read more...]
5 Ways We Can Stop Erasing Undocumented Black Folks from Conversations on Immigration July 1, 2018 by Tiffany Lee Leave a Comment “Stay away from Bobby’s department store over in Brooklyn. There are ICE agents over there rounding Caribbean people up.” Messages like this began circulating in my social media sphere around February of 2018. Legislators and police disproved those specific reports. However, the fear and anxiety that enabled these Facebook rumors to spread are very real. As the daughter of … [Read more...]
Stop Using Mixed-Race People as Symbols of Interracial Unity To Ease Your White Guilt June 17, 2018 by Sophie Buzak-Achiam, Guest Author Leave a Comment Editor's Note: This piece was first published in Danish magazine Friktion and is republished with permission. Dutch beer company Heineken has recently faced backlash for its “lighter is better” ad, where a light-skinned Brown bartender slides a beer past three dark-skinned Black people towards a Eurasian woman. The bartender shares a wink with her before the slogan “Sometimes … [Read more...]
Not in Our Queer Names: We Must Support Muslim Immigrants and Refugees February 22, 2018 by Katie Tastrom Leave a Comment Within days of Trump implementing his ban on refugees from certain Muslim majority countries (which, let’s call it what it is, a Muslim ban) he also announced he would keep the protections for federal LGBT employees that Obama implemented. Whether this was on the urging of his daughter and son-in-law, or his own idea (hah!), this is not something to celebrate. Do not … [Read more...]
Immigration Olympics?: Why Immigrants Don’t Have to Be Superheroes to Deserve Respect or Access August 21, 2016 by Dawy Rkasnuam Leave a Comment In mainstream liberal media, there’s no shortage of stories about heroic immigrants who rescue people from burning buildings or save their classmates during a school shooting. We applaud these people for their acts of bravery and compassion, and more often than not, we share their stories as examples of why immigrants are great for our community. Coming from an immigrant … [Read more...]
The Hypocrisy of American Grief: Why We Shed Tears for Gun Violence But Not Refugees July 10, 2016 by Catalina_Velasquez Leave a Comment It is touching and appropriate that we cry for children killed from gun violence. But somehow, there is a disproportionate level of attention given to refugee children. The conversation about these children is radically different, since children who are U.S. citizens are seen as innocent, whereas refugee children are seen as criminals. This is about more than politics. This … [Read more...]
