I work in a small city just outside of Atlanta called
Doraville. It is somewhat developed and
populated predominantly by minorities; mostly Hispanic. A few weeks ago, in a
wave of protests aimed at bringing awareness to the policies that would hurt
them, groups organized the Day Without Immigrants on February 17. Social media sites sent out the word and
marches and walkouts were held. The
problem is that many Hispanics did not get the call and many also did not heed
the call. Where I work, a great many
Hispanics do not use social media. Many
never heard that this was going on. Many
heard, but could not take the day off for fear of losing their jobs. For many, it had to be just another day.
When we started talking about that wall, we had to take
quite a few things into account. The defense of those impacted by the wall
would in all likelihood, have to take place in large part without their active
participation. We are talking about
undocumented workers who cannot step forward to tell their stories or defend
themselves because, well, they are undocumented.... and “illegal”.
Still, as a community, they are somewhat separate from the
rest of the U.S. and when we look at how to engage a community we have to hear
their voices and recognize there may be other considerations we need to take
into account. Things like the fact that
the same modes of engagement as the Women’s Marches would not work the
same. Can someone who does not speak
English well or at all call their congressman to complain. Would they?
So what about me? I
am a 43 year old black liberal and I don’t hear my voice out there much
either. I am educated. I am a veteran. I have concerns. In my adult life I have been stopped by the
police 27 times. When I look at tv shows
and listen to podcasts or worse yet, watch the White House Press Briefings, I
have to pause them while I fume over the fact that the press is not asking a
question that I find rather obvious, but that they neglect to mention.
Even the right has a similar problem. In my opinion, Donald Trump became president
because a bunch of really small factions came together to vote him in BUT there
was never a cohesive idea of what having him there means. Imagine a hundred people in a room who voted
for Trump. As a group they are able to
say, “We want X.” and there is agreement within the room but then you have
other people with other agendas that conflict with the fact that these people
wanted Trump to be president. Those
people who said “we want X.” are now co-mingled with those who say, “ We want X
and we also dislike Jews, Blacks, Mexicans, women, LGBTQ, etc.” The voice of
the moderates who wanted Trump and were willing to align with the extremes of
the right to get him elected are now being “owned” by those extremes. Many people on the right cast their vote for
Trump for whatever reason and then sought to get on with their lives but in
fact what happened was they became another number those extremists could point
to and say that they are a part of the great numbers who rose in opposition the
Dems. So in that room of 100 people, maybe 5 are white supremacists, 5 are outright misogynists, etc. but I do not think the vast majority are bad or "deplorable" people, just a conglomeration of people who had specific wants they felt would be addressed by this administration.
So, as we watch the Attorney General Sessions talk about withholding federal funding from "sanctuary cities" that help immigrants, we do not hear their voice. I watched as Sessions walked out as April Ryan asked about Eric Garner and the man who was stabbed and killed by a white supremacist it is important to bring out more voices because I can't hear mine.
So we are looking for the voices! (extreme PLURAL). The Writ Large Podcast is a commentary podcast where YOU get to ask the questions and make the comments that you want to make. Get your comments and questions in by Friday to be a part of the next week's podcast.
Here are the rules...
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We want people to call in or text and we will read it allowed to tell us what you think.
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