Seeing the "Others" as Our Loved Ones

My heart is with Minnesotans who stood up to protest the violence and violations ICE committed for weeks in my home state. Last week, White House official Tom Hohman announced that the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota is ending. I’m dubious about when the ICE activities will end or if they will just pop up again in another state. But the announcement made me reflect on the people still in detention centers and the emotional wreckage the ICE occupation already created, even if raids ended immediately. It seems like it’s the fondest wish of the Trump administration that government seizures and attacks would make all Americans see immigrants in our neighborhoods as the dangerous cause of the violence. I think Americans see through it, knowing the exact opposite is true.

When I saw the video of U.S. citizen ChongLy “Scott” Thao taken from his home in handcuffs wearing only underwear, my thoughts flew to my father who raised me in Moorhead, MN for my first 13 years until his death. An immigrant from Trinidad & Tobago, he also had Asian features and American citizenship. I imagine how outraged we would have felt to watch him, a professor at Moorhead State University (now Minnesota State University - Moorhead), dragged out into the snow without warning, explanation, nor the opportunity show his passport.

Whenever I see pictures and articles about people the Trump administration attacks, I don’t see “others.” More and more, I see them as family, friends, and neighbors because I know they are just as loved and needed by their communities. Little Luis Ramos in his winter coat and bunny hat, used as bait by ICE to catch his parents, looked like my own children when they were in kindergarten. The president’s crude racist post using images of Michelle and President Barack Obama looked like an attack on my friends. The more the president, ICE, and conservative media try to villainize non-white people, the more those individuals look like the people I love. I know I’m not alone in this.

Empathizing with those we’re supposed to fear or hate is fuel for a loving resistance.

I was disturbed to see a senator from my state, Senator Josh Hawley, acting on a disbelief that neighbors would rise up to protect neighbors. He sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking for an investigation into the funding and coordination of grassroots anti-ICE campaigns. He wrote “Recent reports suggest that these campaigns, while presented as organic civil protest, are in fact substantially financed and professionally coordinated by wealthy left-wing organizations and individuals—including those with possible ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Nonsense. It’s just us. Nobody’s paying us. We’re constituents organizing peacefully and using our rights to speak out for the people we love. I know because I know the faces in the crowd who are my actual friends and neighbors. It’s me and my little paint pens and painter’s tape I bought from Michaels craft store using a coupon and my Michaels rewards dollars. (By the way, I’m $2.14 away from my next reward voucher, so it depends on the government’s next move to determine whether I’ll use it for poster board or for Easter crafts.)

If Senator Hawley wants to listen to his constituents on this topic, I’d offer to walk him around at the next No Kings protest in the style of Andrew Garfield going incognito as Spider-Man at his first Comic Con. I wouldn’t expect the senator to agree with us, but I think he’d get a sense that the protestors are real people who genuinely care.

In the nervous, earnest words of Andrew Garfield at the mic after he revealed himself in the Spidey disguise,

“I think we all wish we had the courage to stick up for ourselves more, to stick up for a loved one more, or even a stranger you see being mistreated.”

That’s exactly what we’re doing. May we have the courage to do more of it in the days, weeks, and months to come.

My first book, “From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started,” is a warm and witty guidebook helping moms to make a better world for all of us. It provides inspirational stories and “how-to” instructions for new and experienced activists to get more involved in advocacy.

My second book, “Advocacy Made Easy: How to Turn Civic Frustration Into Powerful Action,” is a practical handbook designed to demystify the advocacy process for everyone. It offers a convenient, step-by-step guide to making your voice heard in the halls of power—no political experience required.

• Buy an autographed copy from my website at www.changyit.com/books.

• Order online at bookshop.org or Barnes & Noble.

• Order from any independent bookstore near you!