Every child grows up knowing what bad words are.  There is the F-word, S-word, B-word and many more, but now there is an I-word.
Immigrant.
Today there is a growing fear of immigrants that is fueled by our president as well as the media. The word “illegal” has been thrown around as a label for immigrants who are undocumented.
Earlier this year, Mollie Tibbett’s case really hit close to home. She went missing in July and later in August was found dead. Many stories came out with headlines like, “Illegal Immigrant Charged with Murder.” The media mentioned his status first, putting a bad light on all immigrants in our country.
First, a human being should not be considered illegal. Their actions may be illegal, but they themselves shouldn’t be labeled that. We wouldn’t call a US citizen who murdered someone or stole something illegal. We would say that they committed an illegal act.
Second, this fear of undocumented immigrants has morphed into a fear of all immigrants, a fear of all people of color.
This fear has led to people calling 911 when they feel threatened by a person of color for no reason and assumes they are committing crimes due to media stories. The police are responding to these calls and putting these people in hand cuffs because it’s generally a white person’s word against a colored person’s word.
It’s causing people of color to fear for their lives. There have been many reported cases of undocumented Hispanics doing their regular work and someone attacking them because of their skin color or because they don’t speak English.
And while we know not all white people are afraid of people of color or are racist, it is in these cases that we need them.  We need them as allies.
We need them to be like Tibbett’s family, who came out and told the media not to use their daughter’s death to perpetuate fear of immigrants.
We need them to stand up for those who don’t have a voice. We need them to speak up for their fellow human beings.