Don't police my undocumented outrage

Juan A. Prieto
Aug 23, 2017 · 3 min read

This whole “Free Speech” rhetoric has me in a whirl. Especially given that I can’t seem to express my views without having people come after me whenever I do so.

A week ago, I addressed a group of Latinx students (and their families) starting on their journey at UC Berkeley. I had initially planned to speak about my academic experiences as a Latinx student at Cal, but the night before I would address them, a swarm of white supremacists stormed into Charlottesville, Virginia.

I decided it would be appropriate to address what occured in Charlottesville, given that the students were going to be entering a university that has been at the center of Liberal support for the spread of white supremacy. I also wanted to hxstoricize our role as Latinx people in the fight against white supremacy, and the different ways Black, Indigenous, and other students of color have fought against it on the Berkeley campus.

I figured it’s what these young, energetic future Latinx Berkeley students needed to understand before entering the arena.

Shortly thereafter, a parent complained through an email. Now, I’m used to people disagreeing with what I have to say; it’s literally in the nature of free expression. It was the content of their concern that truly upset me. Amidst being upset that I was too "enraged" and "inflamed," they were upset that I wasn’t being grateful for the opportunity to better my situation at Cal. In short, that I wasn’t the opinionless, American flag-waving DREAMer they anticipated.

I’ve gotten all sorts of complains and threats as a response to what I have to say before, but an ally toning my frustration at a system that is quite literally out to separate my family and friends waylaid me.

See, this is the issue with selling our allies the glorified DREAMer archetype. We set ourselves to be these flawless, emotionless robots whose American nationalism outshines any citizen's. It sets us to be void of any political dissent; to be unable to think beyond producing for the country responsible for the economic downfalls of our homelands. In short, this narrative cradles a culture that robs us of our ability to verbalize our critical thoughts; it limits our freedom of expression.

This morning I read Yosimar Reyes' "Why We Need to Recognize Undocumented Peoples’ Power," published by Teen Vouge (AKA adolescent Mother Jones), and I felt a rekindling of the passion these last 215 days have dwindled to a flicker. In it, Yosi argues that we as undocumented people need to start sharing our complex views to disrupt citizen's conceptions about our community. To complicate the narrative by centering our voices when policies that directly affect us are being decided upon.

In order to do this, however, I’m going to need all those who profess to be our allies to stand with our outrage. To let us be enraged, angry, unapologetic about the ways we’ve been made to feel for the past decades. To allow for our political thoughts of dissent be seen as a perspective from the outskirts of the American Dream, not expect the embodiment of it. If what we have to say makes you feel a discomfort, analyze what conditioning you have been exposed to that makes you feel the need to condemn what we have to say and not the systems that are making us that upset to begin with.

If you’re one of those making the case to allow white supremacy to organize itself in your city because of the First Amendment, remember Charlottesville. Remember which side killed someone expressing their discontent with white nationalism, ignoring the fact that she had the right to freely express it. Yes, remember Heather Heyer, but also remember the countless BIPOC lives lost in the span of white supremacy’s hold on our society. How many voices and perspectives have been silenced at the hands of the police, immigration, and those who profess to fight for “Free Speech” on college campuses?

That being said, here are some random, angry thoughts rushing through me that people have complained to me about for having:

ICE IS TERROR.

DEPORTATIONS ARE ETHNIC CLEANSING.

THE US GOVERNMENT SELF-LEGITIMIZES ITS WAR AGAINST B/I/POC THROUGH CRIMINALIZATION.

A BROKEN WINDOW CAN STOP THEM FROM BREAKING OUR SPINES.

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Juan A. Prieto

Written by

writer | layout designer | political organizer | researcher #UndocumentedUnafraid | Twitter: @immig_rant | IG: @immig.rant

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