When you hear a man on the radio talking about families seeking asylum in the United States as an “invasion” or “caravan” he wants to make sure you see these children + parents fleeing harm as criminals.

They want you to see a danger, not a person deserving of humanity.

When the television host covers credible accusations of sexual assault against the local sports star, but puts up images of the Survivor in a party dress, he wants you to see she can’t be trusted.

They want you to see a vixen, not a person deserving of humanity.

When memes circulate suggesting the fight for racial justice consists of nothing more than looting businesses, they want you to see Black America as violent—one of the oldest racist stereotypes.

They want you to see a criminal, not a person deserving of humanity.

When so-called journalists write about an individual with the sole purpose of letting you know they represent a group and therefore the whole group is bad and wrong, they want to fuel that outrage.

They want you to see a liar, not a person deserving of humanity.

When the commentators on a talk show discuss universal healthcare and call it socialism and tell you it means more brown people will visit the doctor as if that’s a bigger problem than their overt racism.

They want you to see an enemy, not a person deserving of humanity.

When so-called Christian politicians discuss abortion and speak about women needing to suffer the consequences of their actions like wearing a pregnancy bump as a Scarlet Letter.

They want you to see a murderer, not a person deserving of humanity.

When there’s discussion about improving access to healthcare or nutrition programs or housing for those in need, but the cable news personalities draw up images of people refusing to work so they can freeload.

They want you to see a burden, not a person deserving of humanity.

When leaders suggest they can’t permit members of the LGBTQ+ community to be free of housing + employment discrimination because their exisistence damages traditional values.

They want you to see a threat, not a person deserving of humanity.

Day after day we’re told that people who seek:

safety
justice
assistance
support
education
equality

are actually dangerous, criminal, lying, threatening, burdensome, murderous enemies.

This is an attempt to dehumanize millions of men, women, and children.

And if that attempt receives widespread success—if you no longer see people different from you as people, but as an inhuman enemy—it becomes easier to enslave them.

Or send them to concentration camps.

Or force them onto reservations.

Or bus them to internment camps.

And once you’ve physically separated them from society, it’s easier to get rid of them completely.

Whether through beatings, lynchings, shootings, gas chambers, forced sterilization, or other means.

The mental separation always comes before the physical separation.

Genocide doesn’t happen overnight.

It begins with targeted messages meant to make us think another human being is somehow wildly different from us—that they are some “other” type of person you have nothing in common with.

All people deserve humanity.

Always act accordingly.