#24 ¿Que pasó? with Señor B - week of 9/8

This week, a heartbreaking video surfaced of an immigrant documenting his own deportation back to Guatemala. In the video, he shares the gut-wrenching truth: he leaves behind four children who were waiting for him to return home from work. Their heartbreaking reality is one lived in fear every single day; the fear that their dad could be separated from them at any moment.

This isn't a unique story. It's a devastating consequence of inhumane policies that prioritize separating families and traumatizing children. We can’t look away from this. We must speak up.

Please continue to hold ICE agents accountable and speak out against these atrocities. Every voice matters in the fight against these inhumane policies.

This week, Charlie Kirk was killed on a college campus in Utah. He was speaking to a group of students and continued to spread propaganda against marginalized communities.

While it is important not to celebrate his death, it is hard to ignore the complicated reality that he was a victim of the very violence he dismissed. In the past, he stated that those who were killed by gun violence were simply "collateral damage" for the sake of liberty and the right to bear arms.

His sudden death forces a difficult conversation about the consequences of rhetoric and how the policies we advocate for can come back to haunt us.

Following the shooting of Charlie Kirk, the alleged perpetrator, Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody. He is a white male from a Mormon background in Utah. Prior to his identity being released, we saw an outpouring of outrage from the conservative community, which immediately used marginalized communities as scapegoats and peddled false narratives.

This kind of rhetoric creates real-world fear. While the majority of gun deaths in the United States are statistically brought on by white men, officials and pundits continued to push false propaganda. The Utah governor even went as far as to say he was praying the shooter would not be "one of us."

In the aftermath, three Historically Black Universities had to go on lockdown due to threats, and a large rally in Huntington Beach saw participants chanting "white men fight back." This demonstrates how irresponsible rhetoric leads to increased fear and real threats against vulnerable communities. It's a dangerous cycle that we must be vigilant about.

Is this a result of a lack of education? Or is it a deliberate attempt to co-opt movements from marginalized communities?

In a video you might have seen, a self-proclaimed hardcore red hat wearer puts red paint in the shape of a hand over her mouth. She's trying to convey that she will not be silenced after Charlie Kirk’s death. The problem is that this powerful symbol is used by advocates for Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people. It’s incredibly ironic for her to use it, especially since the man she’s trying to advocate for stood firmly against those very communities.

Even after she was corrected, she doubled down on using the symbol. I believe this is just another example of colonizers doing what they do best. It's a blatant disregard for a painful history and a powerful symbol, repackaged for a completely unrelated political agenda.

Last week I shared a video of a Black American individual spreading misinformation about immigrant access to social services. He claimed his tax dollars were going to "illegal immigrants" who utilize government services.

It's important to debunk these false narratives. Undocumented immigrants are generally not eligible for federal assistance such as public housing and EBT cards. Those who do receive these services are often asylum seekers or individuals in mixed-status families who have specific documents that qualify them. Without understanding the complexities of the system, it's easy to fall for these narratives, which is why it's crucial to share evidence and facts.

I also want to address the anti-Black and racist comments that were posted on the video. I do not condone these types of responses, even toward individuals who are actively harming our communities with misinformation. I appreciate all of you who spoke up and made sure that these individuals understood that this type of hate is not tolerated here. Let's continue to be a community that holds each other accountable while remaining compassionate and just.