This week the Justice 4 All Program went back to work calling Formally Incarcerated and Convicted Minnesotans. We completed over 7,000 dials and have built a statewide list of eligible voters who have been through the Justice system. These voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday and we hope they will follow us to the Capitol in January to fight for voting rights restoration. Join us on Election Day by signing up to share our message on Social Media.
The following is a reflection I wrote after brave words from a powerful young woman.
During a recent J4A political education session at one of our phone banks, an Ethiopian High School student brought up immigration as the primary system that has impacted her life. She talked about the threat of deportation and worrying about how filling out the wrong form could result in her family being torn apart. This is a big problem often seen as separate from the issue of criminal justice, but they not separate, they are the same problem.
The same prisons that detain Black and Brown folks for drug crimes are the same prisons that detain Brown and Black Immigrant folks before they are deported. Calls from one of the national candidates for President to “Build a Wall” is a rally cry for people to erase people like the young woman at our phone bank and replace her with a cartoon. The same type of cartoon Black men have been replaced with to scare white people when we walk in the room. We are seen as someone dangerous who doesn’t follow the law, someone who doesn’t belong, someone white people need protection from.
This paranoia is what fuels systemic racism that breaks families apart and locks people in cages. Somehow the young woman at our phone bank becomes the “Bad Hombre?” A teenager who wants to learn more about democracy and serve her community is who people need “protection” from? The “Bad Hombre” is nothing more than a criminalization of Black, Brown and Black Immigrant people that justifies mass incarceration and mass deportation. This is the story people in power want to tell about our communities.
Therefore, it is important that we tell our story. The truth is, our immigration system and justice system are one in the same. The same military vehicles patrolling Ferguson patrol the Mexico Border. The same prisons that profit off Black bodies in cells, profit off Brown and Black Immigrant bodies and their families. This is not an accident, there are wealthy people who benefit from the way things are.
Sometimes our system only needs to perceive potential threats of criminal behavior to investigate, detain and deport someone. We see this with increased surveillance and sting operations happening in the Somali and Ethiopian communities. We see this with Cambodian Immigrants who are of no threat to their community, being threatened with deportation. We see this with unarmed black men gunned down by police officers because we are seen as a “Bad Dude” instead of a person. It is the same criminalization ideology or #BadHombre phenomenon.
We need to fight back against the criminalization of our people. One way to do so is to change who decides and who benefits. Election Day is a few days away, join TakeAction Minnesota and the Justice 4 All Program as we hit the doors for our endorsed candidates. Come put in work and elect candidates who don’t see us as “Bad Hombres” but as people. Come out and tell your story on the doors with voters.
