Earlier this week, we shared with you some of the messages of support we received for Ricardo Aca, the DREAMer who works in a restaurant at one of Donald Trump’s hotels in New York City.
One of the most moving messages we received came from Jay Ware, an Illinois man who wrote to us about his experiences and memories from a different time, compared to what is currently taking place within the field of immigration:
I’m a 54 yr old black man. This Donald Trump thing has dredged up memories I thought were long buried. I remember the 1968 campaign of George Wallace, watching important man saying horrible hateful things about Black people. I also remember seeing a lot of white people cheer for him.
Fortunately I had parents to help me make some sense of it, but I remember worrying that if Wallace was elected, I would have to leave my Lutheran school because all of the black kids like me would no longer be welcome. My teacher Mrs. Kroger told me emphatically that Jesus doesn’t work that way and Wallace had no power in our school. My parents taught me what they could (considering I was only 6 or 7) about the great civil rights struggle. I was a part of like it or not.
Talk to your little ones. They need you to tell them that it will be OK but they are a part of this struggle even though they did not ask for it. Let them express their fears because they will have fears. They can see your anger and anxiety and who knows what kids turn that into.
Oh my God. This is happening again! Trump is Wallace. Sheriff Arpaio is Bull Connor. Jeff Sessions is the Southern racist Dixiecrats. Alabama is your Mississippi.
“Anchor babies” is the shouts of “Nigger, go home” hurled at school children in Little Rock and Boston and everywhere else desegregation was attempted.
Trump horrifies me. I can barely stop myself from stopping strangers who look Hispanic and telling them that I support their struggle and am disgusted by those who call their children “anchor baby” and stoke xenophobia to rocket up in the polls.
Register VOTE and bury this monster. Then be ready to fight it again and again because this evil keeps coming back.
What are your reactions to what is currently taken place within the field of immigration? Do you have comments on what candidates are proposing to fix our broken immigration system? Do you have a story to share with us?
Share with us by clicking here. Jay’s stories is just one small, yet important, reminder of the impacts our stories can have.
