I'm not someone who whole-heartedly believes that the current U.S. political system is going to make things better. I hold the belief that community in action together will do more for us all than the institutions and systems built on all of the supremacy ideas, bias, human and Land exploitation, and fear. AND I also follow the election cycle and vote. (I just finished reading "Midnight in the Latrines, Again" by Aurora Levins Morales and it was resonating.)
Several nights ago, watching the debate between our two mainstream candidates for president, I heard a lot of gross things. One of those was Trump's targeted xenophobic attack against our community members who have sought refuge, migrated, or immigrated to the U.S. Right away, this attack was repeated, made into memes, turned into songs, and copied and pasted around the world. This replication was meant as a jab toward Trump; however, as ludicrous and wild as Trump’s baseless, racist claims are, I don’t find them funny. In addition, I worry that the repeating of his claims is what might stick in our collective memories...rather than the fact that these claims are wrong, harmful, gross, and biased.
In an article titled "The Red X on Book Covers" by author and educator Dr. Debbie Reese, founder of American Indians in Children's Literature), Reese describes a phenomenon occurring during a colleagues presentations on problematic children's literature: "Years ago, a colleague told me that in lectures, she showed book covers of problematic books. In later conversations with attendees, she noticed that some people's take-away from her presentations was that they remembered the book cover but did not necessarily remember that she said 'this book is problematic.'" With this in mind and some information on the science of the brain, Dr. Reese designed a visual cue to go along with the written or verbal one in these situations -- a red X.
These two examples combined led me to remember one of the emergent strategy principles as described by author and activist adrienne maree brown:"What you pay attention to grows." What we pay attention to grows. It's so simple and yet so powerful. It also led me to make this graphic in response to the way people are dealing with Trump's racist statements and how important it is to explicitly name them and pay attention to two things: (a) dismantling the racism that is at the root and (b) growing our understanding of immigration so that we can counter these biased mythologies.
Wherever you see or hear false accusations about people who have immigrated, fill the space with truth. You can also donate to organizations like the Haitian Bridge Project or the Sidewalk School.
Here’s an interruptive booklist of books to read with all-ages to learn more about these topics in real ways. Let’s have the actual conversations we need to have to build our collective anti-racist and social justice capacity.
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