James Baldwin has this quote about the Negro. And in today’s world, its interesting to really pause and let it soak in, when the word negro is replaced with immigrant or Muslim. And to replace north and south with left and right. I have taken the liberty to alter the quote with these modifications.
But the future of the Immigrant in this country is precisely as bright or as dark as the future of the country. It is entirely up to the American people and our representatives — it is entirely up to the American people whether or not they are going to face, and deal with, and embrace this stranger whom they maligned so long.
What American people have to do, is try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have an immigrant in the first place, because I’m not an immigrant, I’m a person, but if you think I’m an immigrant, it means you need it.
The question you have got to ask yourself — the American people of this country has got to ask itself — Left and Right, because it’s one country, and for an Immigrant, there’s no difference between the Left and Right. There’s just a difference in the way they castrate you. But the fact of the castration is the American fact. If I’m not an immigrant here and you invented him, you, the American people, invented him, then you’ve got to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that. Whether or not it’s able to ask that question.
As an Immigrant and as an American, I can only hope that America has the strength and the capacity. And the moral strength. To ask and answer that question. Simply to face that question. Face that question. In an affirmative and constructive way.
Also checkout the documentary: I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
