When one of "our" children goes missing, an Amber Alert goes out. Your phone may shake the walls with that urgent buzz that tells you to wake up: a child is gone! Electronic signs along the highway blink the name and age of the child and maybe the license plate of a suspect. The news flashes across the TV screen: one of ours is missing
In her insightful book on teaching African American children, Lisa Delpit wrote that common classroom practices were often a mis-match for African American children, hindered the learning of children who - in the expectations of teachers, in the particular content of the lessons, and in the classroom interactions - were clearly seen as "other people's children."
Her title phrase has become iconic, taking on a life of its own. It reminds us of the subtle and not-so-subtle ways we treat children differently if they aren't like us, if they are somehow "the other." It indicts us for accepting these divisions and ignoring their consequences.
The current situation of children coming in desperation to our borders brings into sharp relief what happens when our perceptions - and our policies - paint them as "other people's children." There are at least 1500 children - from infants to teenagers - currently missing, unaccounted for because US immigration officials separated them from their families. In many cases, parents do not know where they are, whom they are with, or when they will see them again.
I haven't been awakened by 1500 Amber Alerts. Have you? Has EquuSearch been dispatched to go out looking for them? Probably not. Because these are not "our" children: they are "other people's children." The US attorney general thinks it's their parents' fault for bringing them here in the first place.
A senator from Oregon decided to inquire: where are the children? What is happening to the children who are being detained in "immigration facilities" and how are they being treated? Where are the children who are missing? He's a sitting US senator with all of the powers of that elected office. He decided to go to the Texas-Mexico border to find out.
They wouldn't let him in! If ICE or the Border Patrol had come across youth who perhaps on a vacation outing, had been separated from their parents, and were now rescued, they would have likely been all too happy to let the Senator and news cameras in to witness their successful mission: "Cancel the Amber Alert! White children found!"
But here we see Senator Merkley being turned away from the "facility," the former WalMart now housing hundreds of kids whose lives have already been traumatized in their home countries and their fraught journey to our border.
A week later, Sen. Merkley and his cameras returned and were let in. Oh, my, the photos show matching linens on the crisply-made beds, and colorful walls. Were those there a week ago? Internment of people within our country should have ended with the Japanese internments of World War II. Separation of children from their families should have ended with the closing of the English-only boarding schools Native American children were rounded up and sent to - and with the abolition of slavery.
I applaud Senator Merkley for bearing witness. For being persistent. And I applaud him and Senator Feinstein and their fellow senators who are joining in submitting a bill to end these detentions and give fair treatment to those seeking safety at our borders.
Here is the bill, the "Keep Families Together Act"
If you agree we have to end this cruel treatment of other people's children, contact your senator to support it. Demand Mitch McConnell let it be heard and voted on. Get all your friends to join in.
Every child has a right to be safe. Every child has a right to have her rights respected. They are all our children. And they are watching.
To share the ways you are advocating for these children, please click on the "comments" pencil and write your story.
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