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When you call white people racist for supporting refugee detention camps

Yes, many of us white people do remain silent. We don't think of ourselves as racist. And we prefer not to think about our government herding 80,000 impoverished men, women and children into internment camps or crowded shanties without soap or medical care. But when it comes down to it, many of us value law and order more than we value human lives. But then it turns out that U.S. laws actually support the rights of the refugees. And it turns out that requesting asylum is completely legal. Still, isn't it better to just blindly obey what our government says? I mean, I don't endorse 100% of the administration's policies, but what am I supposed to do? Fight for change? Protect innocent victims? Even if Border Patrol and ICE are not following the law, surely they have my best interests in mind. Right? It's not like they're violating the constitution to oppress my own (white) family. BP and ICE are government, so just obey their orders! What's so hard about that? As for the children in cages, sucks to be them amiright haha. But seriously I'm trying very hard not to empathize with them right now, so don't mention how many of them got sick with the flu in the middle of summer due to unsanitary internment conditions. Don't mention that the outdoor camps are reaching 100 degrees, or that some indoor camps are kept at 56 degrees (according to the Inspector General). It's not as if indefinite detention of humans who are not even charged with a crime was my idea! So stop blaming me. It really feels like you're blaming me. And don't accuse me of trying to make this tragedy all about myself, either. I get it, that my tax dollars pay for these camps and the salaries of the guards, but it's not like I'm Secretary of DHS. Turns out DHS doesn't have a Secretary right now. Which proves this very unfortunate tragedy is nobody's fault. Also I realize my tax dollars pay for the AC that's set as cold as Abu Ghraib, and the instant noodles, and the soap and the toothpaste, but it's still not my fault. (Never mind about soap and toothpaste, turns out nobody pays for those haha. But somehow it still costs $750 per child per night? I guess I'm trying not to think about that, either, because I'm opposed to government waste and our detention system is making me feel like a hypocrite for not accusing the administration of gross financial corruption.) By the way, you want to know how I know our internment camps aren't racist? Because if those refugee kids were technically white but were still foreigners speaking a foreign language, most of us wouldn't show up to protest, either. See, that proves we aren't racist. Still don't believe me? Well, one time a boat full of 937 white refugees showed up at a Florida port of entry, claiming to fear for their lives, and we refused to give them asylum. Our government sent the boat a law-and-order message saying all refugees must "await their turns on the waiting list and qualify for and obtain immigration visas." Why? I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure the important lesson here is We Don't See Color. That happened in 1939. Anyway, assuming the children survive our camps in 2019, they will learn another important lesson: They should fear and obey the U.S. government -- just like a real American! Then we will deport them. By the way, please stop telling me that we are deporting them back to some of the most dangerous cities in the world. Where there's a good chance they will be killed by corrupt government agents or a cartel. See, that reminds me that some of my own government's agents are kind of similar to a cartel. Why are you telling me that? Don't tell me that! Sure the children are technically humans, but they were not even born in the United States, were they? So case closed. Also this whole situation is making me curious about what happened to the refugees on that 1939 boat, but I'm not going to look it up because I seriously do not want to know. We white people realize that U.S. immigration policy at the time was intentionally discriminatory and blatantly unconstitutional, violating the 14th Amendment, but still, we prefer not to know. So, ok, maybe it's a lie to say that we white people care about law and order. It turns out that many of us don't care really care about law, as long as we have order. #detentioncenter = #internmentcamp = #concentrationcamp
(Photos: DHS internment camps in Clint, TX; McAllen, TX; El Paso, TX; Tornillo, TX)

Location: McAllen, TX, USA

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