A trump-appointed judge just struck down a policy put in place by Biden to protect undocumented immigrants married to US Citizens which is crazy because the rhetoric online for the past 4 years has been that Democratic politicians are just as cruel to immigrants as Republican politicians are...it's almost like not being allowed to celebrate any legislative accomplishments by democratic politicians can create apathy in a huge portion of the voting block and then everyone is shocked when helpful policies they didn't even know existed are stripped and suddenly 500,000 people are at risk if deportation because of one judge and one president who appointed them.

A helpful Biden policy being struck down or ended by some judge or Trump is going to become a very familiar headline. The irony is that this might be how people start to recognize Biden actually did something as a president.

This racism against Haitians is really getting to me. I'm not even sure how to refer to it because I don't even want to say "eating pets thing" because they're not doing that! It's a completely made up racist hoax that the Republican candidates for president and vice-president are all in on.

#this is the most context I have for the whole thing#I didn’t see or hear anything about it before and was confused about the posts urgently saying Haitians needed protection @karleenscreativeworld

There's a town in Ohio with a lot of Haitian immigrants and the right made up a completely fake, racist story about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets. To be clear, this did not happen. It's completely made up. A lot of people who aren't on twitter (or maybe some corners of facebook) didn't know about it because it's basically a right wing racist social media hoax, but JD Vance was all in on it tweeting about it and he's a sitting senator who's running for vice-president and then last night Trump mentioned it during the debate. It's had some more mainstream news coverage now because of that and things like the police in Ohio saying "yeah that's not happening."

even worse, it was unsurprisingly started by a literal neo-nazi:

some other debunks (per snopes)

the photo going around of a black guy carrying a goose by the neck (which like first of all hats off to anyone who can capture a canada goose by grabbing it by the neck those things are nasty) was apparently taken in columbus ohio (not springfield ohio where this whole faux controversy is supposedly set) and the guy in it likely wasn’t even haitian. the video of a woman being arrested for animal cruelty and confessing to eating a cat was not taken in springfield and the woman in the video speaks with an american accent and is clearly not haitian.

the recent wave of haitian immigrants moving to springfield hasn’t resulted in any kind of crime spike. the “white boy murdered by a haitian immigrant on the way to school” story was a tragic case of vehicular manslaughter, and the boy’s parents disavowed anyone using his story as anti-immigrant propaganda.

while there has been a recent uptick in haitian immigration to the united states (and to be clear we should welcome them. the situation in haiti is dreadful) most haitian immigrants living in the united states have been here for 10+ years because they were given temporary protected status after the 2010 earthquake and then virtually nothing else was done for them (they should be offered a path to citizenship imo) many of them who originally settled in coastal cities are now moving to midwestern towns (such as springfield ohio) because that’s where the factory and warehouse jobs are and the cost of living is more affordable.

I just want to add that “stealing and eating your pets” is something opponents of integration used to claim in the 50s about their black neighbors

It’s the same old racism

It's been used against Asian immigrants too. A real classic old racist chestnut.

I've also heard it used against Native Americans/First Nations people.

the new American Gothic. // artist unknown, feel free to tag and tell me who painted this.

this is by mexican american artist Criselda Vasquez, and here's her words on the painting via it's instagram post:

"As the American-born daughter of two Mexican immigrants, I illustrate their plight and the plight of many in my community with my art. I want to expose the heart-breaking pain of what a Mexican immigrant’s family goes through. I focus on bringing my family's world into the light and out of the shadows. My paintings are best described as visual comments on the hidden daily reality of the Mexican-American experience. These portraits and still lifes reveal my family in their own authentic environment and expose how I live in two worlds. My paintings layer the American culture over the Mexican world. I feel society needs to be aware of the humanity on the other side of the door.

The two most important people in my life, my parents, are also the two who motivated me to develop such a strong concept. When my parents pose for these paintings, their faces are reduced to extremely raw and somehow vulnerable expressions. Sadly, they strive to be invisible every day. They don’t have to pretend to illustrate the invisible. They have dealt with constant rejection, suspicion and fear so long, that it seems now that it comes naturally to them. I strive to capture how their expressions deliver that sense of tiredness, resignation, and quiet acceptance. It seems relevant to show that underneath all the politicization and undeserved labeling this community receives, these are regular people just like all of us. In the long tradition of immigrants that come to the United States, they have made homes here and they are just trying to live a simple life with a bit of security and hopefulness for their children."

her ig// her tiktok

John Pavlovitz on Twitter:

Since the Evangelicals love to quote Leviticus so much:

"And if a man from another country is living in your land with you, do not make life hard for him; Let him be to you as one of your countrymen and have love for him as for yourself." -- Leviticus, 19:33-34

“So when 9-11 happened I was in high school. My dad sits everybody down. He’s like, “Hasan, whatever you do, do not tell people you’re Muslim or talk about politics.” “Alright, Dad, I’ll just hide it. This just rubs off.” We’re sitting there. Phone rings. I run, but my dad beats me to the phone. “Hello?” I grab the second phone. I hear a voice. “Hey, you sand ******, where’s Osama?” He looks at me. “You can hear me, right? You fucking dune coon. Where’s Osama?” “Hey, 2631 Regatta Lane, that’s where you live, right? I’m going to fucking kill you.” Click. And my dad’s looking at me. Do you ever see your parents, and you see the mortality in them? I’m looking at my dad and I see all five-seven of him. And that’s when I realize I’m a darapok. I’m a scaredy-cat. We can speak two languages. We can speak at home and outside. I should have said something. I didn’t. We sit down. I hear “thud, thud, thud” outside. Me and Dad run outside and all the windows on the Camry are smashed in. My backpack’s open. “Fuck, they stole my stuff.” I reach and I pull out my backpack. Pieces of glass get caught in my arm. Now blood is gushing down my arm, and I’m pissed, I’m fucking mad. Fuck this, man! These kids know where we live, they’re timing this, so they’re watching us. So I’m looking in the trees, the bushes… I look back in the middle of the street, my dad is in the middle of the road sweeping glass out of the road like he works at a barbershop. “We’ve got customers. Log kya kahenge? We’ve got to clean this up.” Zen! Brown Mr Miyagi, just, like, not saying a word. I’m like, “Why aren’t you saying something? I’m asking you, say something!” He looks at me and goes, “Hasan… These things happen, and these things will continue to happen. That’s the price we pay for being here.” That’s when I was like, “We really are from two different generations.” BMX bikes aside. My dad’s from that generation where he feels like if you come to this country, you pay the American dream tax. You endure racism, and if it doesn’t cost you your life, pay it. There you go, Uncle Sam. But for me, I was born here. So I actually have the audacity of equality. I’m like, “I’m in Honors Gov, I have it right here. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. All men created equal.” It says it right here, I’m equal. I’m equal. I don’t deserve this. But as soon as I say that… He looks at me like I believe in Santa. “Hasan, you’ll never understand.” “I’ll never understand? Dad, you’re the guy that will argue with the cashier at Costco when he doesn’t let you return used underwear. And now you want to be the bigger man? Now you’re like, ‘Let’s be reasonable with the bigots.’ What?” And then he just walks back into the house with glass in his feet. And I honestly don’t know who is more right. Maybe he’s right. Put your head down. Be a doctor, get a house in the burbs, let them call them whatever you want. But isn’t it our job to push the needle forward little by little? Isn’t that how all this stuff happens? I don’t know. The pendulum swings back and forth for me. And I know 9/11 is a super touchy subject. I understand. Because when it happened, everyone in America felt like their country was under attack. But on that night, September 12th, it was the first night of so many nights where my family’s loyalty to this country was under attack. And it always sucks. As immigrants we always have to put on these press releases to prove our patriotism. We’re auditioning. “We love this country, please believe me.” Nobody loves this country more than us.”

- Hasan Minhaj on Homecoming: King (2018)

Sesame Street Memory: Lucy Liu | #ThisIsMyStreet

Lucy Liu shares a heartfelt memory of learning to speak english by watching Sesame Street and finding a family within the cast. Share your favorite Sesame Street memory on social media with #ThisIsMyStreet!

“Fuck #Ice shoutout to my Mexicans , pass this shit”

-  Fabio Ochoa @QuePasaWindow

All the people in the notes saying “they aren’t protected by the Constitution,” know nothing of our laws and constitution. The Constitution does not state anywhere that it’s protections fall only on us citizens, ( in fact if states wanted they could open up voting for non-citizens ) and this is the opinion held by the supreme Court in multiple cases.

( this article also talks a bit about rights https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/t-he-constitutional-rights-of-noncitizens/ )

Just because you don’t like foreign people doesn’t mean they don’t have rights. Even if they didn’t you should still have enough of a heart to care for others.

Hey! This is the link to the cards, a good resource for anyone who needs them or wants to provide them to their community. https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards

THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! Nice work @kropotkinisrecruitin! FOLKS PLEASE SHARE!!!

https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards

Let’s call out the woman who gave the kid her coat too! 💖💖💖 Awesome job Milwaukee!!

Well done!

RAICES, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, is a 501©(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees in Texas. 

Seems like one of the most direct ways of helping right now, IMO. I honestly don’t care if people donate through my fundraiser… but please donate. Direct link works too. 

https://twitter.com/Rrrrnessa  <<< source

Also, not to be a blunt asshole about this, but do you know how many women I knew as a housekeeper who were sexually assaulted by customers? Spoiler alert: it was all of them!! We had protocols in place to prevent guests from trapping us in a room while we were trying to clean, it was all very matter of fact, because housekeepers being assaulted by guests is just like. Extremely normal. I had more than one strange man masturbate in front of me while I was trying to scrub toilets. Fun times. 

This was a Fairfield Inn, BTW; a nice, mid-grade franchise that caters to businesspeople in a pokey little rural college town. We’re not talking about Vegas, here, not that it would be okay if we were. 

Housekeepers, like survival sex workers, are mostly poor immigrants. It’s one of the few legal customer service jobs you can get without speaking much English, so there’s that, too.

The place I worked was actually really great about supporting their staff and making sure that the non-Anglophone workers had avenues to report issues. A lot of places are fucking terrible and exploitative, and immigrants–especially undocumented immigrants, especially people who don’t speak much, or any, English–are easy as hell to exploit. So, to return to the point, the problem isn’t that people are doing survival sex work. The problem is that some groups of people are really vulnerable to exploitation, and making their only means of earning money illegal does exactly fuck-all to prevent that. Making sex work illegal doesn’t suddenly mean that these people have other options; it just makes the shitty options they do have even more dangerous.

Aight boys I know I said I was gonna be gone but I have some thoughts.

I’m in France right now staying with a host family. French is my second language, by which I mean I’ve taken three years of high school french. I’m lucky. Had a good teacher. I can read french intended for adult speakers fluently. But even these people here know that they can speak french to each other in front of me and I won’t catch on to much. They speak slower to me so I can understand them. I’m an intelligent guy in english but here I can barely hold conversation with a five year old.

On the other hand, every adult I’ve met here has taken 10+ years of english. They for the most part can’t make full sentences.

Now imagine you come from a place where education isn’t as easy. Where it’s not free. Some people coming into the united states haven’t had even three years of english. And some of them have had many more. But english is hard compared to a lot of other languages, and the education you have received may have been spotty at best. Take that along with the prejudices you’re already experiencing as an immigrant. And when you speak english people make no effort to understand, nor do they make themselves easier to understand. All they tell you is to learn english. Throw in when people have different accents (I’m here in Bretagne and let me tell you paris was a cakewalk. I can’t imagine learning british english and then going to the deep south)

What I’m trying to get at here is that people who have english as a second language are hard as hell and if you make fun of people’s english or their accent or don’t think refugees should be allowed in without passing a language test (or honestly if you don’t think we should be trying to let more refugees/immigrants in at all) or go into other places and instead of trying to speak the language you just speak english louder then I would love to peesonally fight you

TWO MOTHERS (English Version)

Click here for the Chinese Version

To see other images in this set: click, hold & “swipe away” the top image with your cursor

To zoom in: left click on an image & select “view background image”

From asians4peace.tumblr.com

well here’s a lead story, america

(video is “Found in Translation” for Movimiento Hispano)

I had a hard time processing both the ‘subtitles’ and the rapping at the same time and that confused the hell out of me, if you’re bilingual with bad listening comprehension like me just read the “subtitles” first and then turn on the audio for a second round (or vice versa) bc in all its a very good and artistic message.

here’s what the subtitles read:

Cuándo una minoría deja de ser una minoría? No soy famonso, no soy Ricky Martin ni Thalía. Pero tenemos que votar y todavía no entiendo por qué no votamos como si fuéramos la mayoría. Nuestra gente representa el 12% del ejército. Somos 50 millones y creciendo. Pero sólo votamos el 7%? Por la gente que nos mandan a la guerra? No, lo siento. Quiero cambiar como nos ven en nuestro país. El día después de la elección quiero que los reporteros miren los números y digan, “los latinos la diferencia fueron en éstas elecciones. Cambiaron el mundo.” Bueno, dale “rewind” a éste video. Si hablas inglés, traduce lo que dije. Pero, tienes que votar. Por favor. Para que nos entiendan.

and a transcription of what he’s saying:

When is a minority no longer a minority? When those in power make our issues a priority. Well, here’ a lead story, America: there’s already 50 million Latinos here and counting. Hi majority! When is a majority no longer a majority? It’s not about supremacy, superiority. When you don’t vote you forfeit your authority to complain about those viejos y seniority (??). I want Latinos to declare their independence. I wanna flood the ballot box for our descendants. I’m sick of politicians sticking “immigrant” next to “Latino” and “illegal” like they’re synonyms in every sentence. We’ve had our time being minorities, now let’s be seen. Tell this country what you want and what you mean. You have to vote. No one else can intervene on your behalf - man, they can’t even read the bottom of the screen.