Five years ago, Dulles Airport, the first night of the #MuslimBan. A night that shifted the direction of so many lives, mine included. What our community endured (and continues to) has been recorded on the Wall of Shame.
facebook.com/hassanmahmad/v…
facebook.com/hassanmahmad/v…
A year into the next admin, and guess what? Not much has changed. I remember 5 years ago how the stark visibility of prejudice-I felt so alien-successfully jammed up the fragile mechanisms of due process. We all blamed the admin, as if change is measured in 4 year terms.
But as our Black friends were trying to tell us, that prejudice has been around a long, long time. I today remember the words of Judge Hassan El-Amin of PG County Circuit Court, speaking to a mostly immigrant Muslim crowd after 9/11: "We're right here. All you gotta do is ask!"
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I've bit my tongue for the past year, despite promising to never again sip platitudes out of a pitcher of Kool-Aid. And you know? I still have to fight to squeeze due process out of this system.
Biden has actually defended Trump-era policies. Sure, blame COVID, blame Trump, blame Bush, blame Republicans. WHERE IS THE CHANGE?
The only thing that's really happened is a "Under New Management" sign has gone up. Why can't they do more?
Wrong question.
The only thing that's really happened is a "Under New Management" sign has gone up. Why can't they do more?
Wrong question.
If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Or more correctly - we gotta do it ourselves. It doesn't matter whether we ever see the fruit of our labor or find out if it's working: that's not why we do it.
We do it to serve. My Syrian client whose case is now moving forward, delayed for years by the Muslim Ban. The countless Afghans stuck in legal limbo, some inexplicably detained by ICE *after being brought into the US on military evac flights.*
The Central Americans still languishing in squalid tent cities south of the border. The Haitians Biden has continued to deport.
Still, reminders are good. That's all Trump really was: a reminder of a system that has not changed. None of us can be judged on whether we succeeded in changing, but we can be judged on whether we tried.
Keep building. Nothing began 5 years ago, and it won't be done in the next 5, either.
The real work is changing hearts and minds, because contrary to popular belief, that's where bills are actually introduced.
The real work is changing hearts and minds, because contrary to popular belief, that's where bills are actually introduced.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
