Don’t Forget About The Concentration Camps
Given the craziness of the past couple of years, it’s been easy for people to get swept up in the current news cycle without really resolving problems brought up in the previous cycle. This holds especially true for the Concentration Camps in the US, not so cleverly hidden behind the moniker of “Detention Center.” For nearly the entire run of the current political administration, these Detention Centers have kept migrant children from their parents, some of whom have died in their custody. Forced hysterectomies have been done on migrant women in ICE custody. Even for some of the “happy endings,” migrant children get adopted by American families never to see their original, living relatives again.
And, despite all of this, some still have trouble seeing these “Detention Centers” for what they are. Perhaps being Indigenous has colored my perspective on these practices, as their execution is fairly similar to the atrocities the US government and the Canadian government have committed against Indigenous people on our Native lands. It was within the past couple of years, even, that Canadian doctors were reported giving forced hysterectomies to Indigenous women. And Indigenous history is full of Indigenous children being taken away from their parents and forced into (often white) foster homes so they didn’t learn their own cultural practices or the infamous “Residential Schools.” These are forms of genocide, focused more on stamping out a culture rather than completely eradicating an ethnic group.
Imagine being one of these people. Locked up for 4 years with no real time table on their release. Imagine being one of these children, or one of these parents. Imagine being torn away from your siblings, never to see them again, because some politician you’ve never met decided your parent committed a crime so heinous they didn’t deserve their children. And that crime was just looking for a better life for you and your family. How we, as a society, can stomach the fact that we have Concentration Camps on our soil is heartbreaking. This is the kind of thing that should have the entire public in a rage.
And sometimes, for a couple moments during the typically insane news cycle we have to deal with in these… interesting times, people do care. But these news cycles quickly move on to the next thing, and our collective consciousness moves with them. But for the people living in these Concentration Camps, for the families being torn apart, or the women forced into medical procedures against their will, they don’t have the privilege of forgetting about them. Many will definitely develop or currently have post-traumatic stress disorder because of them.
And we owe them all our attention and our help. We need to let our lawmakers know we are disgusted they would operate concentration camps on US soil AGAIN, that we are outraged they would make us party to such vile practices and inhumane treatment. Because we have to understand, we are accomplices so long as our governing body is the one committing these acts. Every time we endorse a politician who supports the “Detention Centers,” or even those who remain quiet on them we are supporting the Concentration Camps. Every time we’re silent when someone defends the Concentration Camps, we’re showing support.
And we need to do better than that. We can be better than that. America has never been the country we grew up believing it was, but we can make America the country we want it to be. At least, I’d like to believe we can be a country that makes kindness, support, and empowerment the cornerstones of its existence. And if we can’t, what’s the point? What is there to be proud of? Who do we want to be, and what do we want out of our nation?
