Even a polite proposal to establish immigration quotas based on country of origin is to suggest an immigration system that was abolished in 1965 as part of the civil rights movement. Of course, Trump’s proposal wasn’t remotely polite, and I truly feel sorry for anybody who fits Trump’s claim that he’s the least racist person you ever met. Furthermore, the rationalization that the only color Trump sees is green is also incriminating and underscores the wedge that divides us.
This economic wedge is everywhere, such as claims of favoritism and claims of reverse discrimination through quotas. There are corporations making money on incarceration of criminals and illegal immigrants.
Ferguson was funding its government through driving citations. These money issues are not ancillary. Competition for resources promotes the tribalism in our DNA and creates the space for irresponsible leaders to direct our anger down instead of up. A better analogy may be a chicken and an egg rather than fuel to a fire.
Tribalism is a part of each of us, but so is empathy and compassion. As observed by Mark Twain, travel is fatal to bigotry. Although making everybody travel is unrealistic, diversity is not. By working and interacting with people different from us, we get the benefit of traveling without leaving town. It is through these personal contacts and our stories that we are able to see the humanity in everybody. Also, more apparent is the disservice our technology does to us by filtering our communications to augment people and views similar to ours.
Read something more worthy of MLK Day than Trump’s immigration plan:4
The president of a mosque paid the fine of the vandal who defaced the mosque, so the vandal didn’t have to go to prison. The mosque president cited a lack of communication for the incident. More specifically, “If he would’ve known who we are, he wouldn’t have done this. If we would’ve known his troubles with us, we would’ve tried to help him.”
– Joe Criscione, President