Migration is Beautiful
"Meet powerhouse artist/activist Favianna Rodriguez — a leading voice in the movement of artists raising awareness about U.S. immigration issues."
- I am OTHER
Harvest of Empire
The Untold Story of Latinos in America “We are all Americans of the New World, and our most dangerous enemies are not each other, but the great wall of ignorance between us.”
Juan González, Harvest of Empire
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Migration is Beautiful | Favianna Rodriguez | I am OTHER
"Meet powerhouse artist/activist Favianna Rodriguez — a leading voice in the movement of artists raising awareness about U.S. ...
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Native Nation Immigration
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| Black Bedouin |
Then, two weeks ago, we had the Boston Marathon bombing. A serious and extensive tragedy, if you look closely there are
some sticky issues that we, as a Village, have to consider. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev,
the surviving suspect of the bombings, became a naturalized U.S. Citizen on September 11,
2012. The reality – a U.S. citizen is
being held for the murder of three and maiming of over 250 other Americans. It
is currently believed that Islamic radicalization may be the reason that
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev resorted to such criminal vehemence.
On the one hand, we have a true Native American telling us
we have no right to tell any other peoples or cultures that they cannot come
here, after all, we didn't ask...we just showed up. The flip-side of that is that once you become a naturalized
citizen of the U.S., do you have the right to be treated as a U.S. citizen
even if you committed a terroristic crime on U.S. soil so soon after becoming a citizen?
As uncomfortable as these topics are, we still have to
examine them. Why are we so intent, as a nation, to have this debate about
illegal immigration, particularly where Mexicans are concerned? After watching
news coverage on the Boston bombings, it should be apparent that there are many
other illegal immigrants here, and they aren’t from Mexico. Prior to the bombings, I truly don’t remember
hearing the trash talk about Russians or even Jamaicans for that matter. Is
there some difference in illegal immigration – is it better to be an illegal
immigrant from China than Mexico?
When did we become so insensitive to other Americans? Yes,
the Tsarnaev brothers, if accused correctly, are toast in my book. We are
Americans. We don’t beat up and bully
each other because of religious beliefs….or at least we’re not supposed to. And
when did the amount of time you've been an American matter? Musician Sting
(formerly of the Police) was considered American by most Americans long before
he actually established any kind of citizenship over here. Conversely, Tina Turner has thrown her lot in
with the Swiss, but does that really make her any less American to us…the girl
from Nutbush, Tennessee?
Notice that in the 400 words I have written previously, the
word human has not entered the
conversation one time. My point here is very simple…if we don’t start dealing
with some of our human rights issues like we are human, i.e., Native Americans,
Mexicans, then we cannot expect those that we allow to enter our country to
become truly American and embrace those higher values that we are all reaching for. If we don’t treat
ourselves, our American selves, like we love each other, then how can we expect
others to come and do the same?
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