To My Friends, The Dreamers
It’s been a while; I know. I’ve been adulting. However, I digress to more pressing matters facing the Union.
As a child, I was neighbors with first-generation El Salvadorians. My first best friend was a first-generation Nigerian and Haitian. From elementary school to junior high, I sat behind a first-generation Philippino girl. I played hundreds of basketball games alongside a first-generation Albanian. As a teenager, I played manhunt all around the neighborhood with first-generation Italians. As a young adult, I worked with first-generation Irish construction workers. I had meals in Chinatown where my first-generation Chinese coworker ordered our entire meal in Chinese. I’ve worked alongside many first-generation East Indians. I’ve attended protests with first-generation Iranians. I’ve tossed weights around with first-generation Russians. I’ve been good friends with Australians who own technology start-ups. I’ve spent weekends away with innovative business owners from Jordan. Some of my best friends are first-generation West Indians. My mother is a first-generation Cape Verdean. I am a first-generation Grenadian. First-generation (insert nation) doesn’t exist without courageous human beings leaving their native country to immigrate to America (or another country) to strive for something better for their future generations.
My entire life experience is bursting at the seams with the seemingly endless stories of people immigrating to this country to give their children, my friends, an opportunity to achieve more. These are extremely hard working and good people who struggled to give their kids opportunities that they did not have in their native countries. I am here because of immigrants. My friends are here because of immigrants. And let me let you in on a secret: come close, yeah you, come here...SO ARE YOU!! (No, not you Native Americans, y'all are good).
So when the announcement came from the Attorney General that this Administration would be repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) I was once again found myself feeling ashamed of America and quickly began to reflect on my own life. I couldn’t help but think that with a change in who my father slept with and where I was conceived that l I too might be one of the over 800,000 young people impacted by this cruel decision. I began to wonder when We The People would wake up to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if this the nation we really want to be. Do we really want to turn away the nations that colored my childhood and adult life?
Then I remembered that America treated homosexuals this way. Then I remembered that before Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra became famous that America treated Italians this way. Then I remembered that America once rounded up the Japanese and treated them this way. Then I remembered that we once treated the Irish this way. Then I remembered America's greatest disgrace is its ongoing mistreatment of its Black community. The list goes on but then I remembered that America already answered my question and confirmed that this is who it wanted to be on November 8, 2016.
Whether you're a fifth-generation descendant of a slave, a first-generation kid with hopes of making your parent's sacrifices worth while, or an immigrant with a dream of your own; this administrations message is clear. Regardless of your intellect, talents, ambition, and patriotism; if you're not a straight, white, english speaking male then you're not welcome here.
My hope for all you "Dreamers” is that you return to the country of your parents origin and you never return. I hope that you swell with the national pride of your country. I hope that this betrayal drives you to use and leverage your many talents with new vigor. I hope you develop industry-changing innovations that aren't made available in America. I hope that one of you is the next great artist or designer of our time and that your work will overshadow America on the world stage. I hope that a few of you are the next great athletes of a generation and that you kick American athletes ass on every playing field. I wish you endless success, my friends. I wish heaps of blessings upon you Dreamers. Actually, maybe you Dreamers are the lucky ones who get to escape this American nightmare.