Exploitation Without Borders
I am waiting to board the train in San Diego when I notice the Border Patrol agent making his way down our line. He stops by each person who looks ‘Latino’ and asks them to present their legal documents. As the people standing next to me rummage for their identity papers, I stand by, angry, embarrassed and ashamed. In that moment, I don’t know what to say or do to protest.
My mind suddenly travels back in time. I ‘remember’ what it must have been like during slavery for Black people who made it to the North. If they had no papers, they were doomed to live each day in fear. If they were ‘legalized’ by free papers, they still always needed these documents, no matter who they were or how old they were or how long they had lived in their community. These papers were all that stood between them and being ‘deported’ and returned to their slave status.
