Today’s Lesson: Being Brown in Virginia
Today our kids learned what it means to be brown in Virginia while advocating for policies that impact their entire lives.
Leonina Arismendi: Still in Session
Lana Martinez: Cap police just kicked out the kids. We are right outside of the conf room
Today our kids learned what it means to be brown in Virginia.
Every morning as we rush to get to school on time we hear a refrain familiar to parents all over the world: “please can I go to work with you??” As political consultants and educators we want our children to understand grassroots organizing, the intersectional struggle for liberation and the legislative process. Today offered an opportunity to take our little ones to advocate for the Green New Deal — which will certainly impact their generation even more than our own. So, we collected them early from school and headed to the State House.
We practiced important phrases like “legislative review”, “protect our planet”, “healthy futures”, “advocacy”, and “the people’s house”. They drew pictures of the earth and donned stickers.
As both the House and Senate were still in session — an important detail to remember later in this story — I took them on a tour. We went to see a family member who works for a legislator. The four little advocates were lined up every time we turned a corner and reminded to talk quietly and stay off the floor (wrestling, you know, at least two of the little guys have ADHD so…) which of course they forgot each time within ten seconds due to the excitement of going to work with mom.
As we wandered through the second floor the five year old began chanting “we want justice!” and was quickly and enthusiastically joined by his fun-size comrades. We lined up and had yet another conversation about being calm. Forgotten ten seconds later. However, remember that both House and Senate were still in session so a good holistic chant and march led by tomorrow’s activists seemed pretty harmless.
We returned to the ground floor and settled in the chairs outside of the senate committee rooms. Having another conversation about being calm. Lana was approached by Capitol police asking her to round the corner for a private conversation. Now hold on. They asked her to leave four little boys unsupervised. Looking at them incredulously, Lana invited them to say whatever they had to say right there.
“We got a complaint from the second floor that your kids were disrupting meetings.”
We were no longer on the second floor. They did not interrupt any meetings. Lana was clearly having a conversation with them about appropriate behavior. And oh yes — House and Senate were still in session. All of which she informed the officers.
“They can’t be in committee rooms ma’am. They have to exercise decorum.”
Pardon me? We literally just told them it’s the people’s house…
It culminated in a threat for Lana’s arrest and orders to leave.
This is what it means to be brown in Virginia. Memories flooded us of capitol police threatening Leonina and one of our comrades last year — both immigrant femmes of color. Todd Gilbert calling capitol police during a committee hearing on an immigrant justice bill claiming that someone yelled “racist”. Capitol police watching with disinterest while a delegate grabbed our friend, comrade and mentor Rocio Gonzalez — may she rest in power, screaming obscenities at her. Where was that delegate’s decorum? We were reminded of every committee hearing full of brown and black Virginians always overrun with police.
We brought our kids so they could get political education and that’s exactly what they got. More profound than how a bill becomes a law or hashtags to support policies. They learned what it is to be Indo-Mexican and Afro-Latinx advocating for policies that directly impact their bodies and lives. They learned what it means to be non-neurotypical navigating a society that both prefers and expects submissive clones. They learned that literally calling for justice comes at a price — paid out by coerced silence, erasure and forced removal. Our babies are getting a political education and while it may not be what we had planned it is indeed a lesson that they will remember and repeat for their entire lives — what it means to be brown in Virginia.
