What Our Black-Asses Can Do For Detained Families
Welcome to the nineteenth installment of This Black-Ass Life! This week, we’re talking about child separation and how our Black asses can activate around this issue despite Orangina Hitler’s best efforts to keep profiting from jailing Black and Brown people. Please keep reading to learn about the babies, why this matters and what we can do - especially since it’s easy to feel helpless in the face of all this. We also keep it real light and fun after the heavy stuff with T.V. and podcast recommendations, faith in Bey and the World Cup!
Don’t forget: We've managed to grow this list thanks to y'all forwarding to friends so please keep it up! If possible, forward this link to subscribe to five friends. And please send us topics you'd like to see covered in the newsletter, texts from your Black-ass people and any Black-Ass anything from around the world and web.
I. The Facts
2,342 children are separated from their parents following a “zero tolerance policy” in which ALL cases of entry without documentation into the U.S. are referred for criminal prosecution.
It is as bad as you have heard and seen. Yes, children are placed in cages, yes children are traumatized and yes, babies are are not being held or touched. In fact, workers in the camps are not allowed touch the children at all, meaning that older children are changing the younger children's diapers.
Even though, Orange Julius Caesar made a reversal through an Executive Order, the government currently has no tracking system for parents and children, plans to reunite them are tenuous at best and all the EO really does is put whole families back in cages for the foreseeable future.
Further, many of the parents were told, “you won’t be seeing your child again,” and there are reports that some of the parents, fearing that they will never be reunited with their children, are dying by suicide.
Why is this important (historical context)?
America has a long history of separating children from their families. Even before this country became a country, slave owners were splitting up families. The confusion we see with parents trying to reunite with their children mirrors the confusion former slaves dealt with post Civil War.
In the early 19th century, the U.S. government led a campaign to assimilate Native American children into White American society. Native American children were taken from their parents and communities and forced to attend assimilation boarding schools that were aimed to "kill the Indian, and save the man."
In the 1930s, anti-Mexican hate led the federal government and local authorities to round up Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans, forcing them to leave their homes. Many were separated from their children forever.
Why is this important 9today?
Private prison corporations are paying top dollar to GOP Members of Congress (and Minute Maid Mao) to keep making money detaining families.
And this ain’t new. Check out these investigations from 2015, 2016 and 2017 on how the CCA and other major private prison corporations profit from caging Black and Brown people.
Major medical organizations are calling out the mental health repercussions of separating children and their families.
Family separation causes irreparable harm to children. This level of stress can literally disrupt the building of children's brain architecture.
The longer parents and their babies are separated, the greater the reported symptoms of anxiety and depression for the children. Negative outcome for children include post traumatic stress disorder, psychological distress, academic difficulties and disruptions in their development.
What can my Black Ass do?
Click here for insights on where to donate, information on how to call your representative and find your nearest protest, tips on how to start your own protest and more.
Make sure when y’all protest, you fight to not just keep families together, but also fight to keep families together and OUT of cages. National day of action is June 30!
Take care of yourself. It’s hard to help others when you’re ignoring your own needs. Here are five free apps for mental health and well-being.
II. Other Things
Keeping this section positive!
D.C. voted Yes on 77! Yay for one future fair wage for workers including tipped workers! When we say D.C., we mean largely Black and low-income communities. (Check out this trifling map showing vote distribution.)
Read this recap thread on the BET Awards and find a list of the winners here.
I (Mitu) love Red Table Talk, Jada Pinkett Smith’s roundtable show featuring her daughter, mother and assorted guests. It’s so heartening to see three generations of Black women speak openly about fun and sometimes difficult issues.
Winston Duke proved that the Nigerian World Cup fit is the hottest fit at the MTV Movie Awards.
Still Processing is an amazing podcast and they did a review of Everything Is Love that spanned all topics from the album to Black love to immigration policy and it was beautiful.
World Cup news: Senegal won and tied, which felt like winning. Nigeria lost, won and is ready to face Argentina. South Korea exploited anti-Asian European racism in the most fabulous way.
Our Black-Ass song of the week (Jumoke):
“For Life,” by Runtown has been on repeat for several days. It’s an oldie, but provides solid summer vibes.
Things we are looking forward to / things we are not looking forward to:
I (Jumoke) am looking forward to Nigeria winning the World Cup because WE ARE NUMBER ONE! DOWN WITH THE OTHER TEAMS! SPORTS! SPORTS! Am I doing it right?
I (Mitu) am looking forward to OTR II in July. I walked in Faith with Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter even when doubters told me there would be no new music. AND LOOK WHAT WE HAVE HERE. A NEW ALBUM. Listen now.
Addendum: We wanted to end this on a positive note, but we are not looking forward to Supreme Court decisions. Y’alls fundamental rights ‘bout to be taken away in the next few weeks because the Supreme Court is mostly trash.
III. Text from a Black-Ass Mama
My (Mitu’s) mama is apparently a huge Warriors fan and also screenshot some African-Ass brooms to signify the sweeping of the Cavaliers.
Stay Black, stay beautiful, please know we’re still looking for that Nigerian World Cup jersey plug and we’ll hit your inbox next on July 9.