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**Story time** When I was in high school (Go @SpartansWSHS!) I went up to DC with a group of Tennesseans organized by groups like @conexion_tn & @LatinoMemphis to meet with each member of the TN congressional delegation and advocate for the DREAM Act (1/?
(this was when it was introduced for the second time in 2006 and people were just realizing that an entire generation of young people who were raised right here were coming of age and ready to go to college, etc… so
(2/?
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The entire group of 20 or so was welcomed and heard by *most* of the members of the delegation (shout out to @WeAreUnidosUS & @cecmunoz for organizing), including our Republican @SenAlexander. (3/?
Side note: it’s been a while since HS, but I still remember his office being one of the coolest I’ve ever been to because it felt like we were in a cabin in East TN. Anyway…(4/?
Well that was all very nice until we were scheduled to go to meet with @MarshaBlackburn who was at the time the person representing parts of Shelby County (my neck of the woods) in Congress. (5/?
The leaders of the group decided to keep that meeting intentionally small with only 3 people, the Exec Director of @LatinoMemphis (Jose Velazquez) and one of the co-founders of @conexion_tn (Jose Gonzalez) and me. (6/?
Now, I’m not really sure that I understood at the time why I had been chosen, but now I have a sense that because I was not a DREAMer myself, just a constituent from Shelby County that I could have a better shot at being heard on behalf of the issue by my Congresswoman…(7/?
after all, members of congress don’t take meetings with just anybody (I learned this a little better after working on the Hill myself (Senate and House side) some years later). (8/?
Anyway, back to 16/17 yr old Laura, having her Mr. Smith Goes to Washington moment all bright & bushy-tailed waiting to meet w/ an important person to share about the importance of giving a chance to my friends who grew up as Americans to actually become citizens, etc. (9/?
Well imagine my giant surprise when this important elected official walks in…(10/?
Takes one look at me and says, “Are you an illegal? Because if you’re an illegal then you have to leave my office immediately.” Yes. She. Said. That. After. Just. *Looking*. At. Me. (11/?
I somehow actually answered the question (maybe shock, adrenaline…mostly likely being a naïve teenager in front of an important grownup) and explained that even though I am Hispanic and brown… (12/?
I was fortunate enough to have an immigration status and would not personally benefit from the DREAM Act. I was just a concerned constituent. Well, EL OH EL we still were kicked out. (13/?
FOR YEARS. I’ve been so embarrassed to share that story… maybe it’s because it would remind people that I’m brown (yikes!), or make people feel sorry for me, or I'm just mad at myself for giving an answer. I didn’t call it like it was. It was racist. (14/?
What @MarshaBlackburn did that day was racist. She had her scheduler take time out of her day to meet with this group of Latinos from TN, looked at our brown faces and kicked us out of her office. (15/?
Fast forward to 2018, I quit my @Uber job & came back home to TN to join @PhilBredesen’s campaign because I believed in his message, but also because (16/?
I could not look at myself in the mirror if I didn’t do everything in my power to pushback against the kind of nasty, vile politics and “values” that @MarshaBlackburn represents. That is not the TN I love. (17/?
I’m very proud of the campaign we ran and the team we built (shoutout to the POD of young firecrackers who killed it every day), but even in a position of leadership for a major state-wide campaign (18/?
I was mortified when @VoteMarsha & team started with their anti-immigrant dog whistle, pointing to campaign staff as “illegals”. Interestingly, they put a tracker on me. https://twitter.com/jmpalmieri/status/1055665168708001795?s=20 (19/?
Comms ppl take pride in being so above things. I's hugely important to *never* become the story. I was embarrassed when reporters (most white, some not) mentioned it and asked *me* what she was implying and whether she was talking about me. (20/?
One reporter, the great @HenryJGomez, actually asked *her* what she was implying and obviously didn’t get a straight answer. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/marsha-blackburn-phil-bredesen-tennessee-senate-election (22/?
Blah blah we didn’t win (though I get great satisfaction from the @TaylorSwift13 endorsement), @MarshaBlackburn is Senator for my home state. AND today I finally got the courage to say *something* because she's “disappointed” by the #SCOTUS #DACA decision. EL OH EL. (23/ ?
today’s #SCOTUS decision on #DACA is a huge sigh of relief for the thousands of people who go to school, work, worship in our community, but still have no path to be fully integrated into our country b/c they can’t be citizens. So the fight continues. (24/?
The fight continues bc after a long &winding road for #DREAMERs, politicians like @MarshaBlackburn continue to amass power. Not surprisingly, today she is hiding behind “law and order” while using straight up racist language to describe people who look like me as *aliens*. (25/?
. @MarshaBlackburn didn’t need to check my status, she just saw aLatina standing in front of her. That was enough to give her the gall to kick us out. All it took was my brown face. (26/?
So, if you’re so shocked and tired and maybe mad as hell and want to be an ally, please make sure you and your friends are 1. Registered to vote and 2. Actually showing up to vote (vote Early!). Here--> http://Vote.org (27/?
I’m a little anxious putting all of this out there, but I’m emboldened by the countless people calling out the systemic racism that we’ve been internalizing or brushing off to be polite for so long. (28/?
