Freedom From...Racial Inequality

FREEDOM FROM...

JUNE 2025 ISSUE NO 05

TABLE OF CONTENTS THE FIRE NEXT TIME: AN UNFORGIVING ESSAY ON RACIAL INJUSTICE IN AMERICA

WE CROSSED OCEANS, NOW WE’RE COMING FOR EVERYTHING: AN IMMIGRANT’S REVOLUTIONARY REBUKE TO AMERICA

CHAINS IN THE BOARDROOM: UNMASKING THE MACHINERY OF WORKPLACE RACISM

THE REAL HISTORY YOU’VE LIKELY NEVER LEARNED

04 06 11 17

Where We Stand FROM:

the mockingbird movement

TO:

you

Our country is in a state where Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are considered “bad words”, and being labeled “woke” is treated as an insult. Ideas like Critical Race Theory (CRT) are demonized before they are even understood, weaponized in political debates and soundbites designed to stoke fear and sidestep uncomfortable truths.

Acknowledging systemic injustice isn’t radical. Demanding fair treatment, equal opportunity, and basic human dignity for everyone isn’t extremist ideology. It’s supposed to be the very foundation of what freedom in this country actually means.

DATE:

right now

VALID FOR:

forever

This is a country that celebrates freedom with one hand while strangling it with the other. You celebrate Independence Day while ignoring that half your population was still in chains in 1776. You wave your flag while ignoring the noose, the cell, the badge, the boot.

You wrap yourself in patriotism to hide the rot of white supremacy that defines your every institution — your police, your schools, your banks, your borders.

THE FIRE NEXT TIME: AN UNFORGIVING ESSAY ON RACIAL INJUSTICE IN AMERICA America, you lie.

You lie in your textbooks, in your courtrooms, in your whitewashed monuments and blood-soaked constitutions. You lie every time you pledge allegiance to “liberty and justice for all” while burying Black bodies under concrete and silence. You lie when you celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and erase Fred Hampton. You lie when you pretend equality was ever a goal. The truth? You were built on exploitation, and you maintain your power through oppression. You do not malfunction — you function exactly as intended.

Don’t tell me about progress. Don’t insult us with talk of a “post-racial” America.

There is no post-racial America when your entire economy runs on generational theft. When white families hold ten times the wealth of Black families. When corporations profit off prison labor, and prison labor is disproportionately Black. That is not coincidence — it is capitalism doing exactly what it was designed to do: extract, exploit, and discard.

You keep telling us to wait. Wait for justice. Wait for the courts. Wait for elections. Wait for your broken systems to magically heal themselves. But we’ve waited. We’ve waited through slavery, through Jim Crow, through crack epidemics you planted and jobs you outsourced. We’ve waited while you militarized your police and privatized our suffering. And every time we rise up, you demand “peace” while sending riot police. You demand “respectability” while killing us in suits and hoodies alike.

And yet, we are still here.

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THEMOCKINGBIRDMOVEMENT.COM

We are still here despite the bullets, despite the beatings, despite the propaganda machine designed to gaslight us into believing this is normal.

We are still here despite being told to shut up, get over it, move on. We are still here — and we are done waiting.

neck and you ask why we can’t breathe.

You do not fear violence — you fear accountability. You fear justice because you know what it would cost you.

To the police: you are not protectors.

You are enforcers of white supremacy.

You are the descendants of slave catchers, the foot soldiers of capitalism, the hired guns of the elite. You do not keep the peace — you protect property.

You do not serve the people — you serve power.

You want to talk about looting? You looted continents. You looted bodies.

You looted futures. And now you clutch your pearls when the people rise to reclaim what was stolen? Don’t lecture us on civility when you’ve never practiced it. Don’t tell us how to protest when your silence has killed more than any riot ever could.

And to the state: you declared war on us long ago. Stop pretending to be surprised when the people start fighting back.

Understand this: revolution is not violence. Revolution is response.

Revolution is reclamation. It is the language of the unheard, the logic of the oppressed, the heartbeat of those who have nothing left to lose. And we are speaking. Loudly. Unapologetically.

This is not about revenge. It’s about revolution. It’s about building a new world on the ashes of the old. A world where justice is not negotiated. Where Black life is not an afterthought. Where equity is not a handout but a foundation. A world where the oppressed no longer ask, but take.

To the liberals clutching their pearls: we don’t need your shallow sympathy. We don’t want your Black squares, your hashtags, your performative allyship.

We want your courage. We want your resources. We want your willingness to tear down the systems that make your comfort possible.

We are not your victims. We are not your shadows. We are the flame you tried to smother. We are the storm you tried to ride out. We are the fire next time.

And this fire? It doesn’t beg. It doesn’t ask. It burns.

o the conservatives crying about law and order: your “order” is oppression.

Your “law” is a lie. Your boot is on our

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04

WE CROSSED OCEANS, NOW WE’RE COMING FOR EVERYTHING: AN IMMIGRANT’S REVOLUTIONARY REBUKE TO AMERICA We didn’t come here for charity; we came for the dream you promised. And what we found was a lie.

You lured us here with stories of opportunity, democracy, and freedom. But the moment our feet touched your soil, your claws came out. You looked at our brown skin, our broken English, our calloused hands, and you saw tools, not people.

You saw labor, not lives. You saw the next class to exploit while grinning about “diversity.” You sell us the myth of the “land of the free,” then lock us in cages. You chant about law and order while turning the border into a graveyard.

You didn’t build this country alone. Don’t ever lie to yourself like that. It was our hands that picked your crops, paved your roads, scrubbed your toilets, cooked your food, raised your children.

You made us invisible so you wouldn’t have to face the truth: this country was built with us—but never for us.

America, we were not invited; we were extracted.

Your corporations destabilized our homelands, your bombs shattered our cities, your policies corrupted our governments. You robbed us, then

blamed us for fleeing the wreckage. You call us “illegal,” but you are the original invader. You drew lines in the sand and called it sovereignty, forgetting that your entire nation was stolen from Indigenous blood and built on enslaved labor.

You have the audacity to call us a burden? You owe us.

You built an empire off the backs of the Global South, then act shocked when the South comes knocking. But we are not here to assimilate into your broken dream; we are here to dismantle the nightmare. We are not asking for acceptance.

We are taking space. We are not begging for a seat at your table; we are flipping it over and building our own.

We see your racism hiding behind “immigration reform.” We see your border patrols armed like armies. We see your ICE

6

raids that tear children from mothers and call it justice. We see your detention centers—modernday concentration camps—where asylum seekers are left to rot without trial, without mercy, without basic human dignity. Don’t talk to us about human rights while you run deportation machines like clockwork. Don’t talk to us about laws when your entire legal system is a weapon aimed at Black and Brown life.

We are not here to blend in. We are here to disrupt.

We are here to undo your illusions, to unlearn your language, to unmask your democracy. We are not interested in becoming the next class of obedient taxpayers. We want justice. Reparations. Power.

Liberation.

You can keep your “American Dream.” We’ve seen the cost; it’s paid in blood. We came to bury that dream and build something new.

You pit us against our Black siblings, dangle crumbs and tell us to be grateful, tell us to stay quiet, to be the “good immigrant” while you murder theirs in the street. You offer us citizenship like it’s salvation, but what is citizenship in a country that was never designed to include us?

This land is not yours. The future is not yours. We are the storm from the Global South. We are the children of revolution and diaspora, and we did not cross deserts, climb walls, or survive war just to be your labor force.

We came for everything you denied us.

You fear us because we remind you of your sins.

You fear us because we survive everything you throw at us—walls, bans, language, poverty—and still rise. You fear us because we come from people who do not die quietly. We come from resistance. We come from colonized nations where we learned to fight empires, and now we see you clearly: not as a dream, but as the latest empire in decline.

We came for your borders, your banks, your ballots, your blueprints.

We are not immigrants.

We are insurgents.

And we are done knocking.

To the white liberals: we don’t need your hashtags, your pity, your fragile guilt. We need your loyalty in the fight. To the white supremacists: we are not afraid of you. You may have the guns, the prisons, the presidency, but we have the numbers, and we have nothing left to lose.

Let this country hear us loud and clear: We’re here, we’re angry, and we are not going back.

No papers. No peace.

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themockingbird movement .com JUNE 2025 ISSUE NO 5

THEMOCKINGBIRDMOVEMENT.COM

WELCOME TO AMERICA: WHERE YOU CAN BE FOLLOWED IN A STORE AND ERASED ON A SCREEN In America, Black and Brown

This isn’t just bad customer service.

It’s racial capitalism doing exactly what it’s meant to do. The system doesn’t want us to thrive—it wants to harvest us. Your brands love our aesthetic, but not our presence.

They take our slang, our swagger, our sounds—strip them of history and repackage them for profit. They bleach it, trademark it, sell it back to white kids in the suburbs, and call it edgy.

people are welcome to consume—but never to exist

We are not customers to this

freely.

system. We are currency.

They want our money, not our

In fashion, we’re the muse. In

presence. They want our

music, we’re the sound. In film,

culture, not our names. They

we’re the trope. In every industry,

want our rhythm but never our

they loot us for style and sell us

rage. In shopping malls, in

exclusion.

movie theaters, in fashion, in film, in every glittering corner

Hollywood will cast aliens before it

of consumer America—we are

casts us as leads. They’ll greenlight

hunted, copied, and discarded.

a hundred white savior films before funding a story that tells our truth

You say this is a free market.

unfiltered. When they do include

But freedom looks different

us, we’re sidekicks. We’re

when you’re Black with a

stereotypes. We’re slaves. We’re

wallet.

gangsters. We’re magical negroes, model minorities, voiceless

Step into a store while Black or

immigrants. We are never allowed

Brown, and watch the eyes

to just be people.

follow you like a drone.

Security doesn’t protect you; it

Even when we break through—when

stalks you. You’re guilty before

we force our way in—they try to

you even touch a price tag.

dim our light. They box our work

They clutch their bags tighter.

into “urban,” “ethnic,” “niche.” They

They ask if you “need help”

shut us out of awards. They erase

with a sneer behind the words.

our names behind the scenes. They

You buy the same things, but

throw us on diversity panels but

you’re treated like a thief. And

never in the boardroom. Because

God forbid you don’t buy

they want our color—but not our

anything—then you’re loitering.

control.

Suspicious. A problem to be removed.

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Representation?

They give us crumbs and call it a feast.

Don’t talk to us about bootstraps when you sold us And in the shopping aisles, it’s no different. They

boots after stealing the leather.

market inclusivity during Black History Month, then fire Black employees in March. They release

Don’t talk to us about merit when we’ve been

“melanin-friendly”

building value for corporations that blacklist us.

makeup

after

years

of

exclusion and act like it’s a favor. You think a Juneteenth ice cream makes up for centuries of

Don’t tell us it’s “just business” when it’s been

exclusion

racial warfare in the form of retail.

and

performative

abuse?

gestures.

Miss We

us

want

with

your

equity,

not

exploitation. Ownership, not optics.

To every brand that profits off our pain: we see you.

If you’re Black, you can be the face of the brand— but never the CEO. If you’re Brown, you can be the

To every gatekeeper that excludes our voices: we

product, but never the producer.

are coming.

And don’t forget—while we’re being surveilled in

To every system that says we don’t belong: we’re

stores, we’re also being priced out. Food deserts.

breaking the door down.

Gentrification. Luxury brands that make you feel like a criminal for walking in. Everything about

This isn’t about visibility.

consumer culture in America says: you can exist here only if you overpay, undercomplain, and stay

This is about power.

in your lane.

And we’re not asking for it. We’re taking it.

But we are done staying quiet. We are done being grateful for crumbs while they dine on our genius.

Shop that. Stream that. Sign that.

We are not your marketing tool. We are not your token. We are the source. We set the trends. We

Because we are no longer just the culture.

make the culture. And now, we’re coming to take what’s ours.

We are the revolution.

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THEMOCKINGBIRDMOVEMENT.COM

HE: T IN OM HE S IN DRO NG TOF A CHOAR SKIERY E B NMA IN AC U ACHKPL M OR SM W ACI R

In the gleaming towers of corporate America,

The labor of minorities in the workplace is not only

where glass ceilings reflect polished smiles and

undervalued — it is exploited. Workers of color are

whispered promises of meritocracy, a darker truth

disproportionately relegated to lower-paying, less

hides in plain sight: the machinery of racism

secure jobs, often with fewer opportunities for

continues to churn. Despite decades of civil rights

advancement. When they do climb the corporate

struggles, affirmative action policies, and diversity

ladder, they are met with suspicion, isolation, or

trainings, racism in the workplace is not an

tokenism. Their presence is tolerated, not

unfortunate relic of the past — it is a living,

celebrated. And if they dare to challenge the status

breathing institution. It is embedded in hiring

quo, they are labeled “difficult,” “angry,” or “not a

practices, promotion policies, performance

team player.”

evaluations, and office culture. It does not wear a hood; it wears a lanyard.

Behind closed doors, racism is institutionalized through performance evaluations riddled with bias,

Workplace racism is not always overt. It does not

mentorships that mirror existing hierarchies, and

always come dressed in racial slurs or blatant

networking opportunities designed to exclude. A

exclusions. No — the contemporary face of racism

white colleague’s mistake is a growth opportunity;

is subtler, more insidious. It exists in the raised

a Black colleague’s mistake is a confirmation of

eyebrows when a Black woman speaks with

incompetence. Latino, Asian, and Indigenous

authority, in the backhanded compliments on

workers face similar microaggressions and macro-

“articulate” speech, in the all-white leadership

level exclusions. The system does not merely fail to

teams that somehow arise in “diverse” cities. It is

protect them — it is designed to suppress them.

the silence in the boardroom when a racial issue is brought up. It is the weaponization of

This is not accidental. This is not incidental. This is

professionalism to stifle cultural expression. It is

by design.

the burden of code-switching, the exhaustion of being twice as good to get half as far.

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THEMOCKINGBIRDMOVEMENT.COM Corporate diversity initiatives often serve as public relations fig leaves, not genuine engines of change.

Companies tout statistics and parade a few faces of color in promotional materials while maintaining policies and cultures that reinforce white supremacy. They hold panels on inclusion while silencing internal dissent. They launch affinity groups but provide no real power or resources to them. They market “allyship” while punishing whistleblowers. In truth, many diversity efforts are little more than branding exercises — camouflage for systemic inequality.

To dismantle workplace racism, we must first name it for what it is: a continuation of the racial caste system adapted for the modern economy. The office cubicle has replaced the plantation field, but the power dynamics remain intact. The language has changed, but the outcomes have not. The same bodies exploited under slavery and Jim Crow are now “underrepresented” and “underserved” in professional spaces. This is not evolution — this is rebranding.

What is needed is not reform, but revolution. The time for sensitivity training and incremental change has passed. We must demand accountability, not apologies. We must demand power, not pity. We must refuse to be “included” in systems that were never built for us, and instead build systems of our own. Radical transformation means rethinking who holds power, how decisions are made, and what values govern our workplaces.

This revolution begins with truth-telling.

Whistleblowers must be protected, not punished.

Racist behavior, whether overt or subtle, must carry real consequences. HR departments must be held to independent standards — not allowed to operate as shields for corporate liability. Unions must prioritize racial justice as a core labor issue.

Laws must be enforced, and loopholes closed.

Leadership must be reimagined, not just diversified.

We must reject the myth of colorblindness, which erases lived experience and protects the status quo. We must embrace a framework of equity, which acknowledges that true fairness means addressing historical and structural disparities. We must center the voices of those most impacted, not tokenize them for appearance’s sake. We must tear down the illusion of meritocracy that justifies inequality and replace it with a system that measures value by justice, not profit.

The revolution also requires solidarity. White workers must see their liberation as bound up with the dismantling of racial hierarchies. The capitalist system that exploits Black and Brown labor exploits all labor. The racial divisions in the workplace are not accidental; they are a tool of control. They divide us so we cannot organize. They pit us against each other so we do not unite. Breaking this system means refusing to be complicit in it.

This is not a call for kindness. This is a call for justice. This is not about creating a “safe space” for dialogue — it is about creating a just space for everyone. We do not need another seminar on unconscious bias.

We need conscious action against conscious oppression. We do not need more statements. We need structural change.

Enough is enough. The time is now.

Either the workplace changes, or we change it — by force of will, by collective power, by unwavering demand. We owe it to ourselves, to those who came before us, and to those who will come after. The revolution will not be authorized by HR. It will be led by the people. Let the walls of boardrooms shake with the footsteps of the rising tide.

We are not guests in these spaces. We are the builders.

And we have come to collect what is ours.

THEMOCKINGBIRDMOVEMENT.COM

AND

SEGREGATION

DISCRIMINATION,

TO

AND

REDLINING,

BIASED

EMPLOYMENT

LENDING

PRACTICES

—

CREATED A RACIAL WEALTH GAP IN THIS COUNTRY THAT WAS BUILT TO LAST. COMMUNITIES OF COLOR HAVE ALL EXPERIENCED THESE BARRIERS IN DIFFERENT WAYS, BUT WITH

THE

SAME

OUTCOME:

EXCLUSION

FROM

THE

OPPORTUNITIES THAT BUILD AND PROTECT WEALTH. THE MEDIAN WEALTH OF BLACK FAMILIES IS JUST ONETENTH THAT OF WHITE FAMILIES. NEARLY 1 IN 4 BLACK HOUSEHOLDS

HAVE

WHILE

PARTICULAR

THIS

ZERO

OR

NEGATIVE

DATA

NET

WORTH.

HIGHLIGHTS

BLACK

THE WEALTH GAP

GENERATIONS OF SYSTEMIC RACISM — FROM SLAVERY

FAMILIES, INDIGENOUS, LATINO, AND OTHER MINORITY HOUSEHOLDS CONTINUE TO FACE WEALTH DISPARITIES ROOTED

IN

GENERATIONS

OF

EXCLUSION

AND

DISCRIMINATION.

THIS

IS

ABOUT

DOORS

THAT

WERE

CLOSED,

OPPORTUNITIES

THAT

WERE

WITHHELD, AND WEALTH THAT WAS NEVER ALLOWED TO BE BUILT OR PASSED DOWN. IT’S ABOUT SYSTEMS DESIGNED TO DECIDE WHO GETS A HEAD START AND WHO GETS LEFT BEHIND. AND UNTIL WE NAME IT, CONFRONT IT, AND ACTIVELY WORK TO UNDO IT, THOSE SAME SYSTEMS WILL KEEP REPEATING HISTORY.

THEMOCKINGBIRDMOVEMENT.COM AMERICANS

HAVE

BEEN

AND

LOCKED

OTHER

OUT

COMMUNITIES

OF

CERTAIN

OF

COLOR

NEIGHBORHOODS,

DENIED MORTGAGES, OR STEERED INTO UNDER-RESOURCED AREAS THROUGH REDLINING, RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS, AND BIASED LENDING PRACTICES. EVEN AFTER THE FAIR HOUSING ACT OF 1968 WAS PASSED, DISCRIMINATION DIDN’T STOP. EXAMPLE: IN 1973, THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SUED TRUMP

MANAGEMENT,

MANAGED

BY

APARTMENTS

DONALD IN

OWNED

BY

FRED

TRUMP,

FOR

REFUSING

PREDOMINANTLY

WHITE

TRUMP

AND

TO

RENT

BUILDINGS

TO

BLACK TENANTS. TESTIMONY REVEALED THAT APPLICATIONS FROM

BLACK

“COLORED.”

RENTERS WHILE

IT

WERE ENDED

GOVERNMENT

STATED

“FAILED

NEGLECTED”

AND

MARKED

THAT TO

IN

WITH

A

“C”

FOR

A

SETTLEMENT,

THE

TRUMP

MANAGEMENT

HAD

COMPLY

WITH

THE

THE HOUSING GAP

BLACK

FAIR

HOUSING ACT.

Racial Homeownership Gaps Over Time

FAST FORWARD TO 2025, THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSED A BUDGET TO ELIMINATE

FUNDING

FOR

GROUPS

INVESTIGATING

HOUSING

DISCRIMINATION

—

THREATENING FAIR HOUSING PROTECTIONS AND MAKING IT HARDER TO HOLD BAD ACTORS ACCOUNTABLE. TODAY, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, HOMEOWNERSHIP REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DRIVERS OF WEALTH IN AMERICA. YET BLACK

HOUSEHOLDS

STILL

HAVE

THE

LOWEST

HOMEOWNERSHIP

RATES

OF

ANY

RACIAL GROUP, A DIRECT RESULT OF THESE ONGOING, GENERATIONAL BARRIERS — FUELING THE PERSISTENT RACIAL WEALTH GAP WE SEE NOW.

Seneca Village C e n t r a l Pa r k B e fo re C e n tra l Pa rk , the re wa s a th r i v i ng , mo s tl y B l a c k c o m m u n it y c a l l e d S e ne c a Vi l l ag e. Fo u nd ed in 1 8 2 5 , i t s tre tc he d f ro m w hat ’s no w We s t 8 2 nd to 8 9 th S tre e t i n M a n hatta n . B l a c k fa m i l i e s o w ne d l a nd , b u i l t ho me s , c h u rc he s, a nd s c ho o l s — a nd fo r ma ny, o w n ing p ro p e r ty me a n t s e c u r i ng the r ig h t t o vo te i n N e w Yo rk at the ti me.

S o u rce: my l e s z h a n g . o rg

I n 1 8 5 3 , the c i ty d e c i d e d to t a ke the l a nd to b u i l d C e n tra l Pa rk , u si ng e m i ne n t d o ma i n . E ve n tho ug h re s i d e n ts fo ug h t b a c k i n c o u rt a nd p ro te s te d , the c i ty fo rc e d them o u t .

B y 1 8 5 7 , the i r ho me s a nd c o m m u n it y we re d e mo l i s he d .

S e ne c a Vi l l ag e i s a c l e a r e xa m p le o f ho w B l a c k we a l th a nd o p p o r t u n it y have b e e n s to l e n th ro ug h h is to r y.

Fa m i l i e s l o s t no t j u s t the i r ho me s, b u t l a nd that c o u l d ’ve b e e n p a s se d d o w n fo r g e ne rati o ns — the k i nd o f wea l th b u i l d i ng o p p o r tu n i ty that’s b een s y s te mati c a l l y s tr i p p e d away fro m c o m m u n i ti e s o f c o l o r.

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THE REAL HISTORY YOU’VE LIKELY NEVER LEARNED

THE 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE A thriving Black neighborhood in Tulsa, OK called Greenwood — also known as Black Wall Street — was burned to the ground by a white mob. Over 35 square blocks of homes, businesses, churches, and hospitals were destroyed. Hundreds of Black residents were killed or displaced, and survivors were left with nothing.

SUNDOWN TOWNS Towns that ban ned Bl ack peopl e (and other people of col or) from bei ng wi thi n ci ty li mi ts after sunset. Si gns at ci ty entrances warned peopl e to l eave by ni ghtfall , and those who di dn’ t were met wi th threats, vi ol ence, or death.

THE FULL EXTENT OF LYNCHINGS Towns that ban ned Bl ack peopl e (and other people of col or) from bei ng wi thi n ci ty li mi ts after sunset. Si gns at ci ty entrances warned peopl e to l eave by ni ghtfall , and those who di dn’ t were met wi th threats, vi ol ence, or death.

ROSEWOOD MASSACRE The small, mostly Black town of Rosewood, Fl ori da was destroyed by a whi te mob after false rumors spread about a Black man harmi ng a whi te woman. Over the course of a week, homes were burned, peopl e were ki lled, and the enti re town was wi ped off the map.

THE ERASURE OF BLACK EDUCATION AND INSTITUTIONS After slavery, Black communi ti es bui l t school s, churches, busi nesses, and nei ghborhoods wi th i ncredi ble determi nati on despi te li mi ted resources. But these vi tal i nsti tuti ons were repeatedl y targeted (defunded, burned, or sei zed through di scri mi natory laws, vi olence, urban renewal projects, and hi ghway constructi on). Thi s was a del i berate attempt to destabi li ze Black communi ti es and block access to educati on, wealth, and leadershi p for generati ons.

17

Freedom for Who? A Look at America’s Selective Liberty NATIVE AMERICANS Tens of thousands were uprooted during the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. The Dawes Act of 1887 stripped tribes of communal lands, selling most to white settlers. The Boarding School Era (1870s–1970s) forcibly took Native children from their families, whitewashing their culture and erasing their identity. In 1890, over 250 Lakota men, women, and children were massacred at Wounded Knee.

And today, broken treaties, stolen lands, underfunded healthcare, and generational poverty on reservations remain harsh, ongoing realities.

JAPANESE AMERICANS Over 120, 000 Japanese Ameri cans were forci bl y remov ed from thei r homes and sent to i nternment camps between 1942 and 1945, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fami li es lost homes, busi nesses, and ci vi l li berti es overni ght. Many never recovered fi nanci ally.

MEXICAN AMERICANS Between 1929 and 1936, over 1 mi l l i on Mexi cans and Mexi can Ameri cans — many of them U. S. ci ti zens — were deported duri ng the Great Depressi on to “ free up j obs” for whi te workers. In 1943, the Zoot Sui t Ri ots saw U. S. servi cemen vi olently attacki ng Mexi can Ameri can youth i n Los Angeles. The Bracero Program (1942–1964) exploi ted Mexi can laborers wi th l ow wages, dangerous condi ti ons, and no real protecti ons. And today, Lati no communi ti es sti ll face di sproporti onate poli ci ng, fami l y separati ons, unsafe worki ng condi ti ons, and aggressi ve targeti ng by ICE — wi th i mmi grant fami l i es detai ned, deported, and torn apart i n a system bui l t on fear and control.

The cycle hasn’t ended — it’s evolved.

18

Michael Donald

Michael was a 19-year-old from Mobile, Alabama, lynched by members of the KKK in 1981. They randomly targeted Michael, abducted him while he was walking to a nearby store, brutally beat him, and then strangled him to death with a rope.

MOCKI NGBIRD MOVE MENT