Prejudice

By: Victoria G. Smith

 

I cannot fathom your resolve
to keep away from flesh and blood.
Could it be that your fear is greater
than your hope, your pride greater
than your love, your hatred
for their mother—a bottomless pit?
If so, I pity you then.
For we shall not pass
your way again.
I shall charge the wheels of Fate
to rip the loom of karmic cycle.
So I and my children,
and my children’s children
shall not have to bear with
the delusions of your small mind
made smaller by your persistence
in your ignorance, your constant need
to occupy our universe with your wounds.
And we shall finally be free
of your prejudice, your toxic shadow,
your unbearably common heart.
You’ve no idea what you’re missing.
Or perhaps you do.
And still.

Poet’s Notes. I am a proud immigrant, and the proud mother of an accomplished immigrant daughter. We have given to these United States of America our best efforts to contribute to defining what it means to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in this progressive nation of nations. Yet the current anti-immigrant atmosphere promoted by Trump supporters is dedicated to making Americans like us look like mere free riders; inferior human beings, even. It thus behooves us to examine the anatomy of prejudice. For the arguments against immigrants set forth by the Trump camp are mainly no more than statements of prejudice.

Prejudice is a strange and fascinating phenomenon, because no one would admit to it, but everyone is guilty of it, to a greater or lesser extent. Prejudice is nothing more than an irrational opposition to the truth. For if one weren’t prejudiced, as soon as the truth is revealed by facts, one might expect those who are informed by the facts to gladly concede to the truth—right? Wrong. Often, now, that is not the case. In our contemporary national political climate, the situation is dire because the truth is staring everyone in the face—literally!—through facts easily accessible on their phones and computers in this day and age of 24/7 Net-available knowledge, and yet many people doggedly stick to their erroneous assumptions that are the bases of their wrong opinions. They say everyone is entitled to their opinion, true, but no one is entitled to their own facts.

One of the causes of this problem is our understanding of truth. “But what is truth?” to echo Pilate (John 18:38), upon which, he quickly washed his hands of it. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines truth as “the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality.” (http://www.merriam-webster. com/dictionary/truth) Still, the same online dictionary is also partly responsible for the confusion in understanding the concept of truth because it likewise proposes this definition: “a statement or idea that is true or accepted as true.” And therein— in that word, “acceptance,” lies the problem. As if truth is a matter of selection, of opinion.

Winston Churchill is the source of a few funny quotes about truth. He said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu103564.html) He also said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” (http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/33- men-occasionally-stumble-over-the-truth-but-most-of-them) How true! Ultimately, Churchill describes truth, thus: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu129864.html) Yes, there it is.

The truth is that immigrants practically carry these United States of America on their backs. They contribute productively to this country equally with, or one might even argue, more than than many natural-born U.S. citizens do—they who were born here, content to rest upon its laurels, taking its gifts for granted, if not outrightly destroying them. It is also true that many natural-born Americans’ problems turn out to be merely the petty, self-absorbed problems of the rich, the privileged, the sheltered— who exploit immigrants as their scapegoats for their own self-created problems, unconscionably ignorant of the rest of the world, and how it is to fight for life itself where basic human freedoms are not available. When one has experienced the lack of freedom to be even human, then one values and protects that freedom where he or she finds it—often, to the death. Is it any wonder then that many of those serving in the U.S. Armed Forces—dying to fight for this country—are immigrants?

And therefore, this is how we immigrants will vote during the November presidential elections: We shall fight to keep the torch lighted held up by the Statue of Liberty—named by the poet, Emma Lazarus, as the “Mother of Exiles,” to whom the poet ascribed these immortal words: “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!” If an American should reject these words, then he might as well take down the Statue of Liberty itself, which remains as a burning reminder to all Americans that their country was built by none other than immigrants. To deny this basic fact is prejudice itself.

(All rights reserved. Copyright © 2016 by Victoria G. Smith. For updates on her author events & publications, go to VictoriaGSmith.com. “Like” her on Facebook at Author Victoria G. Smith. “Follow” her on Twitter @AuthorVGSmith)