No matter what small strides people of color make, there are white supremacists and a whole oppressive culture just itching to beat them down. As soon as the Black Lives Matter movement began, some folks felt a need to insist “All Lives Matter”. They just don’t get it: if they did, they would realize that lifting persons of color up, does not put light-skinned persons down. I suppose I should thank these poor dimwits for if they weren’t so dense (bless their hearts), I wouldn’t have to explain the obvious. Then what would I write about?

“Affirmative Action” programs, which attempt to redress old grievances, are often met with vehement outrage—at very least, bafflement. Negative reactions result from willful or cultural ignorance and/or a sense of privilege. That’s why I so wish the circumstances portrayed in the film Trading Places, were a real and frequent thing—where a wealthy white person and a less-privileged Black individual spend time living each other’s lives.

It has been shown over and over that having darker skin, a non-American accent, an “ethnic-sounding” name results not only everyday discrimination, but also pervasive oppression that can includes violence and murder. Our current system of power and oppression decides where one is allowed to live, the education and health care one receives, and the employment opportunities one can access. Perhaps living in a time where light-skinned people were subjected to the same atrocities that regularly befall Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIOPOC), would open the hearts and minds of oppressors.

Astonishing as it is, apparently there are still people who actually believe that BIPOC are somehow inferior to whites. They *know* white privilege is a real thing, believe it is their due, and are scared to death of losing it—they quake in horror at the notion of white people in United States being outnumbered. This change in demographics is only about a generation away as it is predicted that whites will be in the minority by 2045. Reminds me of a meme with the late Gene Wilder asking why anyone would be fearful of white people becoming a minority; it’s not as if minorities were treated badly or anything?

BIPOC are more likely than their white counterparts to be punished severely, or even prosecuted, for minor infractions of rules and laws. Studies have shown that Black girls are consistently judged to be older than their years, and as a result are not only sexualized more, but also are held to a stricter standard with harsher penalties than their white peers of the same age. I have cringed and cried at reports of Black and brown children, some with special needs, being tackled, beaten, handcuffed and treated like hardened criminals for appearing to defy or sass authority figures like school officials. This is no coincidence. It is blatant racialized oppression.

I know previous administrations don’t have exemplary track records on the issue of immigration. Children are now living under deplorable conditions in concentration camps. Actually, they are struggling to survive—sometimes they don’t make it. There are armies of people, marching under “Right to Life” banners (figuratively and literally), wanting to protect fetal tissue. Where are their outcries in response to the endangerment and preventable deaths of living, breathing, children?

I’ll tell ya something: if I had my way, there would be no new military spending—to purchase armaments or build walls—until all children detained in these concentration camps were processed and provided for. But dammit to hell, we don’t need more ways to blow people up. We most certainly do need to provide a safe place to house these children—and their accompanying adults with provisions of adequate food, hygiene, medical supplies, etc.  Anytime we forget another’s humanity, we diminish our own.