Thursday, November 26, 2015

Thanksgiving, Syrian Refugees and What It Means To Be American


Following the Paris Attacks, a growing number of Americans have demanded that the United States reject Syrian refugees.

On the surface, this sentiment seems to make sense. With hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring out of Syria, many Americans are fearful that ISIS could exploit the greatest mass migration since WWII by posing as migrants in order to gain passage into Western countries, where they could then commit acts of terror.

Amidst the backdrop of Paris, it sounds like a legitimate fear to have. However, when you really dig deep, this collective anxiety does not hold up to scrutiny.

First off, Syrian refugees are not terrorists. They are victims of terror. They are predominantly women and children whose lives have been destroyed by Assad barrel bombs and ISIS barbarism. 

Secondly, America has one of the most thorough and extensive refugee screening processes in the world. As Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson recently explained, refugees must pass multiple levels of background checks, medical tests and interviews in order to gain entrance into the United States. The entire process takes two years to complete.


Thirdly, why would ISIS waste two-years trying to pass the screening process when they already have thousands of foreign fighters with European passports who are ready to commit acts of terror right now? After all, none of the Paris attackers were refugees from Syria. They were all native Frenchmen and Belgians. They weren't foreigners, they were homegrown. 

When thinking about the refugee crisis, we must remember that one of ISIS's main goals is to "eliminate the gray-zone of co-existence between Muslims and the West." They hope that by terrorizing the West with Paris-style attacks it will cause backlash against Western Muslims as a whole, forcing them to abandon the West and join the Caliphate, which ultimately strengthens ISIS.
Muslims living in the West would soon no longer be welcome in their own societies. Treated with increased suspicion, distrust and hostility by their fellow citizens as a result of the deadly shooting, Western Muslims would soon be forced to "either apostatize... or migrate to the Islamic State, and thereby escape persecution from the crusader governments and citizens."
Sadly, we are seeing this ugly trend take shape in America. Since the Paris Attacks, anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise. Donald Trump has led the charge nationally, catapulting even higher in the polls thanks to his inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric. Ben Carson even compared Syrian refugees to rabid dogs. In Texas, armed gunmen are now "hunting for terrorists" by stalking worshippers who enter mosques. This anti-Muslim backlash is exactly what ISIS.


Every time Trump calls for mass surveillance of Muslims or Chris Christie refuses to accept 3-year-old refugee orphans, ISIS jumps for joy on the streets of Raqqa. It strengthen's their apocalyptic narrative that the East is at war with the West, and that the West is hostile toward Islam. It allows ISIS to say to the refugees "Look, the West is evil. They don't want you. They don't respect you. You must stay in Syria. Your only true home is the Caliphate."


Bombs and bullets can only accomplish so much in the fight against ISIS. In order to fully destroy the Islamic State, we must decimate their ideology. Simply put, we can kill a thousand ISIS jhadists every day, but as long as the ideology that motivates them lives on, more and more fighters will take their place. The only way to end this revolving door of horror is to expose the ISIS ideology as barbaric and bankrupt and un-Islamic. 

We all have a role to play in this fight. As everyday Americans, our job is to condemn anti-Muslim rhetoric. In doing so, we prove that America is not at war with Islam. We prove that Western values like tolerance and pluralism are the ultimate antidote to extremism. Nothing would infuriate ISIS more.

As Americans, we have a moral obligation to accept refugees fleeing Syria. To turn our backs on them in their time of need would go against everything our country stands for. After all, the Statue of Liberty says "give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." It doesn't say "sorry, not our problem."

History has taught us that when it comes to refugees, our actions have real consequences. In 1939, the SS St Louis was carrying over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. It was forced to turn around before it reached Florida. More than 250 people on that ship ended up being killed by the Nazis. All because we turned them away. Most Americans look back on this episode with disgust and shame. Why, with the benefit of hindsight, are we willing to make the same mistake by closing the door on today's refugees fleeing Syria?

Finally, as we sit around the table this Thanksgiving, surrounded by family, delicious food and the sound of football in the background, we should also remember that many of our earliest ancestors, including the ones who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621, were themselves immigrants and refugees.

We must honor that legacy by showing compassion to today's Syrian refugees. 

Anything less would be un-American.


Thursday, November 5, 2015

Why Black Lives Matter


Every few weeks we are reminded of what it's like to be black in America.

We see Trayvon Martin gunned down a block from his home, his life taken from him by a neighborhood watchman who deemed him "suspicious" despite the fact he had only skittles and iced tea in his hands.

We see Eric Garner choked to death on the streets of New York city for selling loose cigarettes, his endless cries of "I can't breathe" completely ignored by the NYPD officers surrounding him.

We see 12-year-old Tamir Rice executed on a Cleveland playground, sentenced to death for playing with a toy gun.

We see Sandra Bland assaulted on the side of a dusty Texas road, tossed in jail and mysteriously killed, all for a minor traffic violation.

We see Walter Scott shot in the back multiple times as he's running away from police after being pulled over for a broken tail light.

We see Freddie Gray thrown into a Baltimore police van and given a "rough ride," his spine severed, his life ended, simply for possessing a legal switchblade.

Now we see a teenage girl violently assaulted by a school resource officer in South Carolina. Why? Because she was using her cell-phone and refused to exit the classroom.


Across America, there are two major reactions to these types of events when they take place. Half of the country is disgusted, ashamed, depressed, saddened, confused and upset. We keep asking ourselves the same questions. Why does this keep happening? Why are African Americans treated so unfairly? 

The other half of the country sees these events through a completely different lens. Their is no shared sense of guilt or bewilderment. No long, deep soul searching. No uneasiness over the fact that their fellow Americans are being treated unjustly. They see a teenager killed by a neighborhood watchman or a student tossed aside like a rag-doll and think they must have done something to deserve it. They should have respected authority. They were probably guilty anyway. They got what was coming to them.

These two conflicting perspectives grow more and more entrenched after each tragic event, deepening the divide between law enforcement and communities of color, causing further polarization among everyday Americans.


WHY BLACK LIVES MATTER

When the topic of racial injustice is brought up at the 2016 presidential debates, the candidates on both sides are often asked whether "all lives matter" or "black lives matter." 

Republicans say "all lives matter." They are dismissive of the black lives matter movement. They argue that it's divisive and antagonistic and anti-police. They do not believe it raises legitimate concerns about police brutality or the corrupt nature of our justice system.

However, with each passing day, it's getting harder and harder to ignore the reality of the situation we face. These incidents keep happening. We can argue over the reasons why they keep happening, but that doesn't stop them from taking place. 

Recently, President Obama brilliantly explained the reason why black lives (and not all lives) matter.

I think the reason that the organizers used the phrase "black lives matter" was not because they were suggesting nobody else's life matters. Rather, what they were suggesting was there is a specific problem that is happening in the African American community that's not happening in other communities. And that is a legitimate issue that we've got to address.

Simply put, the tragic events we keep witnessing do not happen with the same frequency in white communities. White kids wearing hoods aren't deemed to be "suspicious." They aren't gunned down in their own neighborhoods. They aren't beaten up by cops in their own classroom. White women aren't pulled over for minor traffic violations, assaulted and mysteriously killed in police custody.

I know this because I grew up in a white community. I made many of the same "mistakes" but never once did I fear for my life. Why? Because I'm white. 

Because of the color of my skin, I am given a free pass, a presumption of innocence, a perpetual benefit of the doubt. I don't have to worry about going out at night, or the clothes I wear, or how I have to speak to police if I'm pulled over for a broken tail-light.

African Americans are not afforded these same rights.

That is the essence of white privilege.


WE STILL MUST OVERCOME

Despite taking place hundreds of years ago, the sinful legacy of slavery lives on in America. African Americans may no longer be held in bondage, but they are still not afforded full citizenship under the law. In many ways, they are still treated as 3/5 of a person.

A powerful new video by the The Equal Justice Initiative brilliantly illustrates this sad reality. As the narrator explains, slavery didn't end in 1865, it evolved. We see it everyday in the form of violent policing and mass incarceration. 


Recently, FBI Director James Comey blamed the rise of violence and racial tensions over the past year on "the Ferguson effect." He argued that officers are "under siege" and unable to "protect and serve" because they worry about being caught on a career-ending cell-phone video.

This completely misses the point. Simply put, if the only thing that motivates you to act properly is the threat of being caught on tape then you are not fit to be a police officer in the first place. 

To fix the situation, we must reform the way we police. We must also reform our corrupt criminal justice system that preys upon African Americans and leads to mass incarceration.

But changing our laws can only do so much. In order to fully exorcise the racial demons that plague us, we must overcome our own individual prejudices. We must learn to empathize with our fellow Americans who are drowning in injustice.

We must reject the long lasting biases, left over from centuries of oppression, that cause us to see African Americans as innately guilty and somehow less human, less worthy of full citizenship and protection under the law.

We must learn to see Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, the young girl in the South Carolina classroom and the countless other unnamed victims of racial injustice not as thugs who got what they deserved, but as fellow Americans who are being denied their rights.

We must remember what Martin Luther King Jr. told us: injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.