Dreamactivist.org Hosts National Youth Convening in Alabama – Nov 11th to 16th
Hate has
never left Alabama. It reared its ugly head as the state went through
the painful process of desegregation and mandatory enforcement of then
recently enacted civil rights policies. It threatened to dampen the
spirit of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as he was unjustly jailed in
Birmingham. That hate has been passed down a generation, and now lives
in the heads and hands of nativists and anti-immigrant legislators in
the state, who secured the passage of HB 56, openly drawing a new
bull’s-eye on the immigrant community of Alabama.
DreamActivist.org Hosts National Youth Convening in Alabama: Help Us Get There
Hate, however, is not Alabama’s only wound. Its deceiving and more-accepted cousin complacency is what continues to foster an environment that allows such hate to continue to thrive. Complacency now plagues the Democratic Party, who purports to politically fight for the rights and advancement of the immigrant community. Yet that which they claim as victories – President Clinton’s passage of the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, President Obama’s record-setting million+ deportations in 3 years, and DHS Secretary Napolitano’s insistence on undocumented youth being low-priority for deportations – these ‘victories’ have torn apart immigrant communities across the United States, instilled in their hearts a deep fear of becoming victims of injustice, and continue to separate families like that of Ramon Aguirre, deported less than a week ago.
Enough of the Hate – It’s Time to Take the Fight to Alabama
As undocumented immigrants we need to take a stand against hate and complacency. We have seen injustice leak out of Arizona, infect the political process in D.C., and spread to Georgia, North and South Carolina and into other states. In the words of MLK, injustice anywhere is indeed a threat to justice everywhere. Each time, resistance has traveled to the heart of the wound, and together we have seen victories, but the time to resist once again has never been clearer.
DreamActivist.org Hosts National Youth Convening in Alabama: Help Us Get There
Hate, however, is not Alabama’s only wound. Its deceiving and more-accepted cousin complacency is what continues to foster an environment that allows such hate to continue to thrive. Complacency now plagues the Democratic Party, who purports to politically fight for the rights and advancement of the immigrant community. Yet that which they claim as victories – President Clinton’s passage of the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, President Obama’s record-setting million+ deportations in 3 years, and DHS Secretary Napolitano’s insistence on undocumented youth being low-priority for deportations – these ‘victories’ have torn apart immigrant communities across the United States, instilled in their hearts a deep fear of becoming victims of injustice, and continue to separate families like that of Ramon Aguirre, deported less than a week ago.
Enough of the Hate – It’s Time to Take the Fight to Alabama
As undocumented immigrants we need to take a stand against hate and complacency. We have seen injustice leak out of Arizona, infect the political process in D.C., and spread to Georgia, North and South Carolina and into other states. In the words of MLK, injustice anywhere is indeed a threat to justice everywhere. Each time, resistance has traveled to the heart of the wound, and together we have seen victories, but the time to resist once again has never been clearer.
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