Countering the anti-refugee hysteria

The refugee crisis is perhaps one of the most pressing issues that we are facing today. A situation caused by a lack of humanity that can only be solved by demonstrating the opposite. People feeling war should not be treated as though they are criminals. Indeed, even as we argue about "illegals" and The Great Orange teases mass deportations we, as humans, must acknowledge that undocumented immigrants are not criminals. Sure, they have criminals among their numbers. Some "bad hombres" to be sure. The majority, however, are just trying to not live in squalor. Is it criminal to want a better life for your children? 

But I digress. I want to talk about refugees. That tired, poor, huddled mass yearning to breathe free. These people are the weakest of us. The most vulnerable. Homes, families, and lives destroyed by war; They're searching for a place to live in peace. Any place. Anywhere but there. That's what they really are. They aren't roving bands of evil Muslims storming across Europe to genocide the white people. They aren't ISIS invaders attempting to blow up the Eiffel Tower or poison the Rhine. They don't want to climb the fences of Buckingham Palace and rape the queen. They just want to exist.

So, let's dispel some untruth about them, shall we? Let's destroy some lies. 

LIE.

"We have to be vigilant. We have to be strong. We have to see what's going on. There's a big problem in the world. You look what's happening with the migration in Europe. You look at Germany, it's crime-riddled right now."

- Donald J. Trump, President-Elect of the United States of America.


Between 2014 and 2015 the refugee population in Germany increased by 440% while the number of crimes committed by refugees increased by 79%. Germany's Federal Criminal Police Agency's (BKA) report on refugee related crime states that the "vast majority of asylum-seekers commit no offenses.".

"Over-represented [in committing crimes in refugee reception centres] are people with Kosovar, Serbian or Macedonian nationality. Under-represented are those with Syrian and Iraq nationality," the report notes.


"The current trend shows that refugees are just as unlikely to commit crimes as comparable groups among the current population. The majority of them don't commit crimes, they are seeking protection and peace in Germany." - Thomas de Maizière, Germany's Minister of the Interior.

LIE.

"The majority of them are young males. And they could easily be people who are being infiltrated by terrorists and recognize that once you bring them in, then you have got to bring other members of the family in." - Ben Carson.

This is absolute bullshit and can be disproved with basic google search skills. Unfortunately, it seems as though the people that listen to Ben Coonson don't know how to google. Not really much of a surprise.

Here's the actual data, though:

Of the 23,826 total applicants seeking to resettle in the U.S. — 15,937, or around 67 percent, are women (of all ages) and male children (age 0 to 11). Men (age 18 and older) accounted for 25.5 percent.

Maybe they're over represented in the total count of registered refugees?

NOPE.

As ALL DATA has frequently shown the majority of refugees are WOMEN AND CHILDREN. Even if you were to count all males 12 - 59 as young males they are still only 32.9% of the refugee population. So, this is an obvious and demonstrable LIE that is being repeated by Republican xenophobes to besmirch refugees and stoke fear. It's despicable that it's being done with such gusto.

LIE.

Again, the majority of asylum seekers are women and children. So that's a lie to start with. The Great Orange lies a great deal so no surprise there.

The vetting process is arduous. Refugees are vetted by gathering biographical information, interviewed, medically screened, checked by Homeland Security and the FBI, run through databases, and then approved. The approval rate is somewhere around 50%.

It kind of seems as though these are things the president should know. Alas, he in a buffoon.  

His buffoonery is on display in another tweet about refugees;

Another lie?! Surely not! Trump wouldn't know the truth of it hit him repeatedly about the head and shoulders with a Chilean Sea Bass while quoting facts about the things he loves. You know, money, Russia, teen pussy, hooker urine...

The fact is that this tweet is a knee jerk reaction to this story. 

"Members of two Syrian families had turned themselves in to U.S. authorities in Laredo, Texas, at the Mexican border, and were being processed by immigration officials, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Thursday.

Two men, two women and four children who "presented themselves" Tuesday at the port of entry were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents and then turned over for immigration processing, DHS said in a statement."

Not sneaking in. Not connected to ISIS. Not terrorists. They presented themselves in the correct way and were processed by immigration officials. 

Again, a fucking buffoon.

LIE.

In 2016 the US let in 12,486 Syrian refugees. Canada has accepted 32,400. Turkey is currently housing 2.7 million. Lebanon?  1.07 million. Jordan? 649,700.

Hardly "pouring into our great country.".

LIE.

"Muslim refugees are running around Europe raping all the white women." - Every xenophobic white supremacist moron on Twitter.

"According to the report, 32 percent of the 208,344 crimes linked to refugees involved asset or fraud offenses, while theft accounted for another 33 percent. The proportion of sexual offenses made up less than 1 percent of refugee-related crimes, with 1,688 cases of sexual assault, including 458 cases of rape or sexual coercion.

According to the latest available figures, there were nearly 47,000 sexual offenses in Germany in 2014."

The fear of brown people raping white women is nothing new in Europe. When French African soldiers occupied Germany after WWI there was the same baseless mass hysteria about rape. Racism doesn't change much.

A German woman has even tried to fight this hysteria by debunking false reports of refugee misconduct with a website called "Hoaxmap". The name is pretty self explanatory. It's a map that shows reports of crimes allegedly committed by refugees that have been refuted, complete with source. She does good work.

"So that extremists can't manipulate people with rumours and half-truths, we need to counter them with facts,“ - Thomas de Maizière, Germany's Minister of the Interior. 

Refugee is defined by Webster thusly:


one that flees; especially :  a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution

They're just people that had to leave their homes to stay alive. They have already risked everything to get to where they are. We owe it to them as fellow humans to help them. Because we can.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

- Emma Lazarus                                                      

Edit - Here is a NYT article that details the entire vetting process.

A short rant.

I have not yet begun to fight.

I never pictured myself here.

Blogs are pathetic, really. Just an exercise in impotent rage. People screaming into the void. A vain attempt to gain attention by people who think they have a unique and interesting perspective. My blog isn't going to change the world.

So why bother?

The answer came at me like a ton of bricks. It fell on me and pinned me to the spot in which I now lay. It anchors me here, in this place, where there is but one course of action.

Because it's something. Because if I can even change one mind, educate one person, reach one kindred spirit, then this is all completely worth it.

Because it soothes me in a way that few things do.

Because they have blogs, too.

By they, I mean these Alt-Right nutjobs that are constantly hounding me and others on all forms of social media. When they aren't sending me death threats, calling me "Afrocentric", or a "black nationalist", or just a nigger, they're attempting to create false narratives about me and my intentions. If someone attacks me and I retaliate they call me violent. If I threaten those that threaten me they say that I'm making threats about nothing. They knowingly spread lies about me and people that look like me to further their agenda and their agenda, make no mistake, is our destruction.

I will never sit quietly and passively while people attempt to destroy me. Be it with words or with weapons. I will always fight back. I will always stand tall against tyranny. I haven't come this far to be silenced by a bunch of angry white men with inferiority complexes. I didn't risk my life in combat to surrender to threats. I didn't watch my friends die for rights that I am willing to relinquish. The more I am told to shut up the louder I will shout.

If you're reading this and you feel the way that I feel then you are my brother. I don't care about your color. I don't care about your religion. I don't care about your geographical location, your sexual orientation, your political affiliation, or your gender identification.

Some people think that I hate Trump voters. I don't. If you are a Trump voter, though, then you should understand a few things. Donald Trump ran on a platform of racism, prejudice, misogyny, xenophobia, and lies. By voting for this you have proven that you do not care about your president saying and doing the things that he says and does. You're telling me that it doesn't matter if he lies to you about any and everything. Otherwise, you wouldn't have voted for him. You have accepted all that he is and decided that those things are ok. I don't know how to reconcile that. I don't know how to be a friend to someone that accepts those things from anyone, let alone from the leader of their country. If you're white and you voted for him that tells me that you care more about Hillary Clinton's emails than you do about my welfare in this country as a brown person.

When he comes for the undocumented and the Muslims all brown people will be under a microscope. You may not see this as a real fear but I cannot afford to dismiss it when it is a clear possibility. Ask the Jews how that works out. Or the Armenians. Or the Japanese. Ask the Cambodians that watched the rise of the Khmer Rouge or the Russians that witnessed the rise of Lenin and then Stalin. You may think I'm being paranoid. The reason you think that is simple; You don't have to worry about it so you don't care. If you're white and an American citizen they may never come for you. You won't listen to me NOW. Will you listen when they come for me? How can I trust you to? Why would I?

I understand that you're scared of Muslims and Mexicans. You disregard the fact that you're more likely to be killed by a white terrorist than a brown one, more likely to be killed by a cop than a Jihadi, more likely to kill a cop as a white man. You ignore the good in each group and exaggerate the bad while simultaneously dismissing the hate groups growing in strength within your own communities and among your own race. Black people are responsible for all other black people while white people take no responsibility for other whites. If a white man screams nigger and hits me in my face on the street "moderate" whites will tell me that he doesn't represent all other white people. If a black man does the same to a white man it will trend on twitter and/or be reported on Breitbart as an example of the violent savagery of the black man. You do this with a complete lack of self awareness. Then you will want to be my friend. Then you will call yourself my ally.

If you do not stand up for me against the people that attack me you are not my friend. If you do not speak up for me when people put me down then you are not my ally. If you do not respect me enough to acknowledge and understand the things in the world that I worry about then you are not my brother.

Right now I can't afford to figure out people's intentions. You're either with me or against me.

I'm not threatening you with violence. Please understand that. This is America, after all, and Americans do not physically attack those with opposing views. Well, not other Americans with opposing views, anyway. The very essence of my fear is that this seems to be changing right before my eyes. I never received death threats for arguing about Obama and Romney. I've never been called a stupid nigger just for admitting to being a liberal. Before this election I was working on poems and short stories. I was thinking about writing a book for my children. Now, I'm blogging anonymously about hate crimes and racism. Anonymously because I fear for the safety of my children.

An American should not have to worry about retaliation against his family for his political views. Yet, I do. I was told not long ago that I should stop arguing and blogging "for the sake of my children and old people.". When I refused I was then told that I "must have a death wish like they do, then.".

What the actual fuck, America?

So, here I am. I will keep writing. I will keep disagreeing. I will continue to be a dissident. I will continue to work towards achieving my political goals and making America SAFE again for myself, my children, and all other people of color. I will not bow to threats nor yield to pressure. I will not sit down. I will not be quiet.

If I should die in the service of this goal then so be it.

Drape a flag on my coffin and bury me a patriot.

Stop It?

Trump's "harsh words" in response to hate crimes are akin to mine when my wife's cat steps on my keyboard while look for pets.

Stop it.

Like kindly Papaw delivering a scolding to his favorite grandchild with the hint of a smile and a wink.

Stop it.

President Obama, adressing hate crimes in America, had this to say;

At root, this isn't just about our laws; this is about who we are as a people.  This is about whether we value one another 
-- whether we embrace our differences, rather than allowing them to become a source of animus.  It's hard for any of us to imagine the mind-set of someone who would kidnap a young man and beat him to within an inch of his life, tie him to a fence, and leave him for dead.  It's hard for any of us to imagine the twisted mentality of those who'd offer a neighbor a ride home, attack him, chain him to the back of a truck, and drag him for miles until he finally died.

But we sense where such cruelty begins:  the moment we fail to see in another our common humanity -- the very moment when we fail to recognize in a person the same fears and hopes, the same passions and imperfections, the same dreams that we all share.

We have for centuries strived to live up to our founding ideal, of a nation where all are free and equal and able to pursue their own version of happiness.  Through conflict and tumult, through the morass of hatred and prejudice, through periods of division and discord we have endured and grown stronger and fairer and freer.  And at every turn, we've made progress not only by changing laws but by changing hearts, by our willingness to walk in another's shoes, by our capacity to love and accept even in the face of rage and bigotry.

Trump, addressing hate crimes in America, had this to say;

I am so saddened to hear that.

George Bush, addressing hate crimes in America, had this to say;

One of the greatest obligations of this administration and of the Department of Justice is the guarantee of civil rights for all Americans. As I said in my State of the Union Address, every one of us must confront and condemn racism, anti-Semitism, bigotry, and hate not next week, not tomorrow, but right now -- every single one of us. For hate crimes cannot be tolerated in a free society.

Trump, addressing hate crimes in America, had this to say;

Stop it.

Bill Clinton, addressing hate crimes in America, had this to say;

We should remember that each of us almost wakes up every day with the scales of light and darkness in our own hearts, and we've got to keep them in proper balance. And we have to be in the United States absolutely resolute about this. That's why I think this hate crimes issue is so important.

We're not talking about everybody agreeing with everybody else on every political issue. We're talking about whether people have a right, if they show up and work hard and obey the law and are good citizens, to pursue their lives in dignity ... without fear of being abused. And this should not be a partisan issue.

Trump, addressing hate crimes in America, had this to say;

And I say, 'Stop it.' If it -- if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: 'Stop it.'

Your "President-Elect" is, at best, an incompetent. At worst, he's a treasonous, white supremacist collaborating toad.

I say 'your's' because he is not mine.

No president of mine would attempt to stop hate crimes the way that Willy Wonka attempts to stop Mike TV from teleporting himself.

The President-Elect is a Pathological LIAR.

The first thing I saw Donald J. Trump say today was a lie. This has been par for the course these last 18 or so months. The only explanation I have for this is that he thinks we're all morons. He might be right.

This tweet, taking aim again at the "Lugenpresse", is a flat out LIE. Disprovable with a simple google search, like so.

How dishonest are they, Mr. Not My President-Elect? Not nearly as dishonest as you, to be sure.

It seems, though, that he nor his supports care for the truth any longer. It seems that the only truth is what more people hear. In Trumpland, a lie becomes the truth when it's heard by more people than the real fact. Just say it loud, proud, and often. People will believe it.

This is NOT MY PRESIDENT.