Today, I could not focus in my classes.
Ironically enough, I was sitting in my American government and politics class learning about collective action when I got a CNN notification that the President rescinded the DACA program.
My initial reaction was to gasp, show my friend sitting next to me, and then realize that I wasn’t surprised. In that moment, my heart broke.
My heart broke for the people that I grew up with whose path to citizenship had just vanished.
This announcement didn’t noticeably phase anyone in the class and my professor went on to finish his lecture.
For the rest of today, I had an overbearing weight on my shoulders because I couldn’t stop thinking about home.
I couldn’t stop thinking about my friends from home who had received the news today that they were at serious risk of becoming illegal immigrants once again; a status that they had no say in the matter of. I couldn’t stop thinking about my friends from high school who had spent years of their lives trying to explain to me how their family situations consisted of a constant fear of deportation.
So just think about this.
This country is taking away thousands of young adults' rights to a better life. People who have not made this decision by their own free will, but by parents who wanted to give them only the best, will now be punished for being one of the only things about America that was actually great.
Mr. President, making America great means allowing all humans of all religions, ethnicities, values, genders, and nationalities, to contribute to a society that should never have allowed a white supremacist to hold an office in this country. Mr. President, you are cruel.
It wasn’t until I was sitting in my conflict resolution class tonight, that I realized that I was soaking in my privileged: my privilege to be sitting in a prestigious university with an American passport surrounded by students who are mostly white.
I did not hear one person on campus today speaking about this tragedy.
I plead with you to imagine this life of fear. Every day I wonder what the history books will say about us in this moment. I fear that when future students turn the pages of this decade, that they will read about mass deportations, violations of human rights, and an elitist society that spread white supremacy throughout this continent. My fears are slowly becoming realities every day.
I am heartbroken because I do not know what to do.
The only thing I know how to do is to denounce this hatred because I live in a world where protests do not change the minds of those in power. I live in a world where the people governing our country choose to only govern some. I live in a world where I was taught that my voice matters, but we have elected people who want nothing more than to silence us.
Don’t you ever tell me that white privilege isn’t real, because it is alive and well.
