Thread by @joseiswriting

Does the immigration legislation feel like Dejá Vu to you? Not the Beyoncé-Jay Z jam, but the policy ping pong kind.

Yeah, us too. politico.com/news/2021/01/2…

Given the enormous and expert community working on these issues, and the numerous attempts to pass comprehensive legislation we need to do some soul searching. It's imperative.

There's no one single monumental challenge to comprehensive immigration policy in the U.S. but something we need to talk about––and which we often overlook––is that good policy is not politically feasible without a substantial shift in our culture.

Our vocabulary around immigration is fraught. The stories we tell about immigrants are often simplistic, catering to stereotypes that are unfair or incorrect. Often, immigrants––the people directly impacted by policies we did not create––are overlooked entirely.

As storytellers, as creators of culture, we all need to do better. We need to check our prejudice, question casting decisions, question storylines because this is what Americans are consuming and this builds our understanding of the world around us.

We're not going to get very far on "comprehensive immigration reform" until we change the culture in which we see immigrants as people. And, that is bigger than the ballot box, or a specific piece of legislation. It's what we consume and what we create. It's THE American story.