Preferential treatment of white refugees from Ukraine over brown-skinned refugees from Latin America presenting themselves at official points of entry and seeking asylum is clearly racist.
While I want to make it clear that I absolutely DO support helping the Ukrainian refugees, because it is the right thing to do, it was not U.S. policy that put them in danger.
In contrast, it is the direct, extensive meddling by the U.S. in Latin America that destabilized governments in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua (remember Iran-Contra?), Chile, Panama, Colombia and others. We literally toppled democratically-elected governments in several of those countries and installed military dictatorships that, in some cases, waged genocide against indigenous peoples such as the Maya that had once been the most advanced civilization of their time. (Reagan provided arms to right-wing strongman José Efraín Ríos Montt in Guatemala, despite CIA warnings of Montt’s record of genocidal massacres against indigenous Mayans for which he was later convicted of genocide).
Those seeking refuge from threats to their lives and safety that are the direct result of U.S. policies of destabilization and propping up military dictatorships that waged genocidal wars against mostly indigenous populations whose ancestors were there long before the arrival of brutal, barbaric European invaders and love their homelands. They only risk arduous travel to go to a country where they do not know the language or culture and are reviled by many there out of utter, extreme desperation.
Again, I do support helping Ukrainian refugees because it is the right thing to do, but I especially support aid and protection to Latin America refugees because WE OWE THEM. We broke it. We have no moral right to deny asylum to those fleeing the poverty, destabilization and violence that WE CAUSED.
Preferential treatment of white refugees from Ukraine over brown-skinned refugees from Latin America presenting themselves at official points of entry and seeking asylum is clearly racist.
While I want to make it clear that I absolutely DO support helping the Ukrainian refugees, because it is the right thing to do, it was not U.S. policy that put them in danger.
In contrast, it is the direct, extensive meddling by the U.S. in Latin America that destabilized governments in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua (remember Iran-Contra?), Chile, Panama, Colombia and others. We literally toppled democratically-elected governments in several of those countries and installed military dictatorships that, in some cases, waged genocide against indigenous peoples such as the Maya that had once been the most advanced civilization of their time. (Reagan provided arms to right-wing strongman José Efraín Ríos Montt in Guatemala, despite CIA warnings of Montt’s record of genocidal massacres against indigenous Mayans for which he was later convicted of genocide).
Those seeking refuge from threats to their lives and safety that are the direct result of U.S. policies of destabilization and propping up military dictatorships that waged genocidal wars against mostly indigenous populations whose ancestors were there long before the arrival of brutal, barbaric European invaders and love their homelands. They only risk arduous travel to go to a country where they do not know the language or culture and are reviled by many there out of utter, extreme desperation.
Again, I do support helping Ukrainian refugees because it is the right thing to do, but I especially support aid and protection to Latin America refugees because WE OWE THEM. We broke it. We have no moral right to deny asylum to those fleeing the poverty, destabilization and violence that WE CAUSED.