I know
this is a blog that I use to talk about TV, movies, books, music, plays, and so
forth, and even when I discuss issues like bigotry or inclusion, it’s always
through that lens of pop culture and storytelling. But right now, I just need to talk.
An indefinite
suspension of refugee admissions from Syria.
A 120-day halt on the admissions process for refugees from all
countries. Cutting the U.S.’s total
number of refugee admissions for 2017 by more than half of its originally-planned number. A 90-day barring of all entry
for people from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somali, Sudan, Yemen, and Libya, even if
they already have a visa (and while 90 days is the stated number, admissions
won’t resume until the administration has satisfied its “investigation” into
these countries.)
I am
beyond disgusted at the total disregard for human suffering, the utter contempt
for our fellow human beings that goes into an order like this. The bigotry disguised as national security. Taking people’s very real endangered lives
and playing politics with it. Stoking
the fires of fear and racism to make oneself look stronger by battling a straw
enemy of one’s own creation (terrorism is a threat – refugees are not. This is not the same thing, and to pretend it
is is shameful.) The fact that it was
signed on Holocaust Remembrance Day just shines even more of a light on how cowardly
and despicable it is.
Is it a “total
and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the U.S.? Not in so many words, but largely in
effect. Certainly, all the Muslims
seeking refuge have had the doors barred to them, a blanket block on the
suffering, and the additional country-specific ban keeps out everyone from seven Muslim-majority
countries. But the added caveat within
the order makes the Islamaphobic bigotry even more undisguised: room has been left for exceptions to be made,
on both the 120-day refugee ban and the 90-day country-specific ban. Throughout the whole of the process,
case-by-case exceptions can be made, with priority going to those fleeing
religious persecution, as long as they’re a religious minority in their
country. With the overwhelming,
overwhelming majority of Muslim refugees coming from Muslim-majority countries,
that means the exceptions aren’t for them.
They’re for those from these countries who aren’t Muslim, i.e., for Christians.
(Now, I’m
not saying that Christians fleeing Syria don’t need protection. They do.
Obviously they do, and I want
to see them getting all the help they need.
But so do the Muslims. To pick and choose who’s deserving of refuge
from suffering is a disgrace.)
I’m reminded
of the Black codes used to curtail Black suffrage after the passage of the 15th
Amendment. States in the South didn’t
pass laws saying that Black people couldn’t vote, because it would have been
blatantly unconstitutional to do so, just like it would’ve been to block entry
to the U.S. explicitly on the basis of religion. So instead, they created laws like literacy
tests and poll taxes, casting wide nets that they knew would catch the majority
of Black Southerners, who until recently were barred from receiving any type of
education and were owned for unpaid labor rather than receiving any sort of earnings. But they knew that, while Black voters would
overwhelmingly be the ones affected by literacy tests and poll taxes, there
would also be a number of white voters unable to pass a test or pay a tax. So what did they do? They made exceptions. Grandfather clauses, whereby you weren’t
subject to those other voting requirements as long as your grandfather would’ve
been eligible to vote, claims that only white voters could make.
As I’ve said before, I live in a city with a sizable population of Muslim refugees from
Somalia, and I work in a public school where I have a lot of contact with EL
(English Learner) and other Somali students.
I know Muslim kids who are obsessed with sports and prom and Facebook,
kids who alternately love school and loathe school depending on the day, and a
SPED kid whose favorite things are hamburgers, cars, flags, and sambusa. Over the past months, as I’ve been working
with them, I’ve been continual blindsided by the thought, “The president-elect
doesn’t think they should’ve been allowed to come here,” and over the past few
days, it’s been all I can do not to cry when I think of these beautiful,
awesome, fun kids that the president is willfully determined to view only as
potential dangerous terrorists.
Absolutely shameful.
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