1. Scapegoating immigrants and 'valuating'people based on race/ethnicity is not new. I say this to draw attention to the shame that we haven't evolved past this and to remind that, as Americans, we must stand against the hatred that plagued the lives of many of our own families.
2. Are you aware of your genealogy? Are you familiar with the trials and tribulations experienced by your ancestors when they came to this country? If you turn a blind eye to this hatred because it's targeted at POC - are you aware that European immigrants faced hatred also?
3. My mother and father's families both immigrated from Ireland in the early 1850's - fleeing starvation and oppression to a promise of freedom and opportunity in America. My mother's family first went to CO to take their chance at the Gold Rush.
4. Without success they soon found that the best place for them to find work as Irish people was in the Midwest building the railroad. This was extremely dangerous work - relegated to immigrants who had little other opportunity.
5. Quite remarkably, my mother's grandfather was able to work his way up into management and supervisory roles on the railroad which gave her family the acceptance they needed to move into middle class and educated circles. My father's family was a different story.
6. When my father's family came to the MO area about the same time they were plagued by a lack of job opportunity and acceptance into 'polite' neighborhoods. Like today's Latino immigrants, available jobs for the Irish were dangerous, sporadic and of very low wage.
7. They lived on the outskirts of of neighborhoods in 'ghettoes' fraught with poverty, alcoholism and violence born of desperation - becoming what is known as 'shanty Irish'. Four generations later, these issues still plague descendants stuck in a cycle of poverty.
8. I realize that what separates me from others who share my lineage is pure random luck. Some were able to get a foothold and climb out, others weren't. When society tactic agrees and 'institutionalizes' prejudices against entire ethnicities - this is the result.
9. We see communities of people every day who wear the yoke of institutionalized racism and injustice. It's frankly heartbreaking that we're still doing it and even more heartbreaking that an entire political party seeks to justify actions that perpetuate these outcomes.
10. Please remember turning a blind eye to the demonization of people based on ethnicity or race is the equivalent of supporting a practice that hurts families and communities for generations. The time to speak up is now. The time to end this is now. We must do better.
