What if There Were Sanctuary Cities for All
After the election I reached out to one of the most courageous and brilliant freedom fighters I know, Alida Garcia. A powerhouse, she launched Inclusiv with Gregory Cendana to put more people of color on political campaigns. She has been a staunch advocate and collaborator of 6-year old Sophie Cruz who stopped the pope and our hearts with her fierce fight for her family. Alida is genuinely pushing real and hard conversations on Black and Brown solidarity — but all this is just in her spare time. By day she fights for immigration reform at FWD.us. I reached out to Alida because I knew that in the onslaught of attacks coming our way, sanctuary cities would provide the perfect target. She better than most, knows the danger our sanctuary cities face under the current administration.
Centers of concentrated hope, resistance and love. I believe sancuary cities represent the best hope we have for the future of this country.
A community drawn in time, some with deep roots that span many generations, others whose arrival is marked by their quest for a better life for those they love. Sanctuary cities are demonstrations of love and justice. They are declarations that we will fight for each other. That our fate and future are intertwined. Despite how much white culture attempts to convince us otherwise. They are an acknowledgement that we need each other.
Imagine sanctuary cities that lifted up and supported communities of color in this country to thrive.
We do not currently have a framework for the intentional community we have the power to build as people of color — one that moves us from the margins to the center. I believe that sanctuary cities can link all of us across time:
Indigenous leaders are all of our original seed on this land. They are the first circle and original freedom fighters of this land. We have neglected our responsibility to fight for the sovereignty and self-determination of tribes across the country for far too long. #NODAPL is the start of us following their lead. Their fight is our fight.
Black people hold the soul of our collective spirit. It has been forged through horrors unimaginable but it is resilient, defiant and unafraid. It holds warmth and joy that centuries of racism and oppression cannot extinguish. You cannot fight for racial justice without centering the Black experience and until we eradicate anti black racism in each of our communities we can never be truly free.
Asian and Pacific Islander communities more than any other have been able to maintain their social and cultural capital in the face of the anti immigrant and anti Asian violence that has been directed at their families and communities. The attack on Arab and Middle Eastern people is but one link in a long chain targeting AAPI and AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian) communities. Their economic self-determination and self-reliance is the way forward.
Latinx communities hold all of our future. They are the catalytic change that will forever change the direction of this country. Young Latinx people are awakening to the reality that this country will not pave the way to opportunity for them and their families. It is a hollow promise that many others have tasted the bitterness of for generations. But the future is on our side. By 2040 this country will become a majority people of color for the first time since 1492. Latinx folks indigenous roots bring us full circle as a country. The responsibility falls on all of us as people of color to ensure that they are ready to lead.
We are standing on the precipice of a great transformation in this country. We can take a purely defensive stance against the current, temporary, roll back of rights and protections that make us a diverse and global leader. Or we can focus on what we will need to do, build and become to lead this country into the most inclusive, collaborative and culturally rooted era since colonization began. I don’t know about you but that is the fight that I want to be part of. One that is rooted in the hope of what we can become and no longer what we can endure. We have the seeds in front of us. As a diverse generation we will fight like hell for our sanctuary cities — while we broaden the term of what that means. That is how we change everything.
