Atlanta, Georgia---I find it hard to believe that a place that once held its own in the Civil Rights era is now ushering in another controversial era, the era of immigration. I think if Martin Luther King Jr. were still alive he would be disgusted with what was happening in Arizona, and more recently what is happening to his state of Georgia. A lot of people may argue otherwise, but if I recalled history correctly his I Have A Dream speech had a line which said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
This passage is important to history, to our nation, and serves as a reminder of what once was and what should never be again. That speech was given in August of 1963 but I guess in this fast paced world no one has bothered to take the time to remember what it means. The immigration laws which were borne out of hate and political needs have once again built a racial barrier between man and government. In this situation man is anyone who looks remotely "illegal" and in most profiling cases, one who looks Hispanic. It seems in 2011 brown skin is the black skin of 1963 but the hate remains the same.
A lot of people will poke holes in my argument, saying an illegal alien is an illegal. They crossed the border, they broke our laws and they must be punished. They must be put on display, they must be shamed, they must be humiliated. We must single them out and exploit them. They must be used for our political agendas. When our economy falters we must have someone to blame. It's never our fault, but it will be theirs.
A hand full of people dislike the comparison between the Civil Rights movement and the growing movement against anti-immigration laws. However, they simply neglect to remember what each of their core values represent. If you boil it down to the basics, humans just want to be treated like humans. The Civil Rights movement wasn't charioted by the ideology of citizen vs citizen, it was human vs human. Whether you're black, white, Asian, Hispanic, legal, illegal, or citizen; no one wants to be treated like something less than what God intended them to be.
So what does an illegal immigrant look like? Almost everyone will answer that they are brown, they speak Spanish, they are Catholic in faith, and they steal our jobs. These terrible stereotypes not only advocate to ignorance but it also proves why Dr. King would feel uncomfortable in our world now. We are targeting people who not only have brown skin but are Hispanic. If you put an illegal immigrant of Mexican origins right next to a Mexican American who is a citizen, how do you which is which? How can we as Americans, righteous in our nature and always benevolent to other countries in need, swiftly turn our backs on other human beings? Yes, they broke the law, that is what made them illegal in the first place, but what made them less than human? When did it become okay to suddenly ostracize people?
I recently read an article about a man who's car broke down on the interstate. No one would stop to help him, his run in with bad luck was at a boiling point and he was in bad shape in every aspect of his life. A Mexican family pulled over and helped him. The parents didn't speak English but had their daughter translate for them. The Mexican man helped the gentleman change his tire, his wife gave him a tamale because she noticed he was hungry and in the end the man tried to give the family 20 bucks. They drove off, he waved goodbye but while unraveling his last tamale he noticed they had sneaked his 20 bucks back. The man said he cried in his car and was grateful.
These are the types of stories we don't hear in America. We're a civilization of Facebook and Twitter, where the biggest scandals sells the most, and the heartfelt stuff is strictly reserved for those who take the time to find it. The Mexican family who helped the man are a prime example of what Martin Luther King Jr. would have been looking for as a counter argument for the hate and adversity we face today. I think it would be a dishonor to his memory to make a complex issue like immigration into a simple platform for discrimination. I think the recent usage of such a volatile topic to boost election numbers is a disgusting exploitation tactic. I hope we don't repeat history and I hope one day the hate will end.
