As much as I am happy to be with family this Thanksgiving, with all the things that have been going on across the board health-wise, but it’s all tempered with the sense that we are forever outsiders in America. Not only as an immigrant family, but as simple people with empathy. My father has seen his fellow classmates and colleagues, who are all 1st generation immigrants themselves, become more callous, and yes, racist. And as I become more radicalized and convinced that there is an unmistakable racist core in this country, it feels like nearly everyone else is simply doubling down and becoming more callous, more racist, more insular, and more unwilling to entertain the idea that the ‘other’ can be anything more than a monster.

Empathy is a sin in this country now, and the darker you are, the more undeserving you are of being treated like you belong. As 90% of the country has immediately swallowed the Wilson line, as we seem on the cusp of a mass demand of ‘close the border’, as we seem in the middle of a lovefest for the GOP and the constant demonization of Obama and anyone who dare speak out against power, I feel…powerless. Helpless. I find any attempt at justice, any attempt to fight back simply results in the bastards gaining more ground, more people turning away and becoming more callous, and more convinced that ‘otherism’ is right and righteous.

I’m thankful for family….but that’s about all I can be left thankful for. I hope for the best for my family, but that’s all I feel like I can hope for anymore, since it seems like hoping for any more simply means everyone else double backs the other way that much harder.