Dr. Martin King said that, “It is a trite yet urgently true observation that if America is to remain a first-class nation, it cannot have second-class citizens.” I have found myself thinking about this observation a lot lately. Recent events have pummeled us with the reality of just how many second-class citizens this country has. Mike Brown. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Levar Jones. And in a different but related vein, the need for Obama's executive action on immigration. Half a decade after Dr. King worked for racial equality, white supremacy is still going strong. Witnessing the stark failure of our legal institutions to distribute rights equally is deeply disheartening. Whatever "first-class nation" means, the US certainly cannot call itself that now. Not by a long shot.
11 million members of US society continue to live without a real, lasting legal status, regardless of Obama's executive actions. While some feel the relief of coming out of the shadows now, they still have no pathway to citizenship and no promise that the benefits given by deferred action will extend beyond Obama's presidency. Plus, it is estimated that Obama's recent action on immigration will only apply to 4-5 million undocumented immigrants, less than half of those who have built their lives and families in this country. This leaves millions who have no legal rights or protections in a country that presents itself as a beacon of democracy to the world.
Too often I think we forget the supreme injustice of our immigration system, which forces millions to live with no basic rights. People are afraid to go to the police when they are victims of a crime, cannot go to college because they are not eligible for federal financial aid, and have no recourse if they are not paid for the amount of hours they work. Families live in constant fear of being separated by deportation.
At the same time, the events unfolding in cities across the US--particularly Ferguson, New York and Cleveland--have reinforced the reality that black Americans continue to be treated as less than human. The rallying cry of the movement that sprung up around police officer Darren Wilson's fatal shooting of unarmed Michael Brown has been "Black lives matter." But the recent decision not to indict Wilson shows that sadly black lives continue to matter less to the powers that be.
Right after the decision came down in Ferguson, in an arguably even harsher blow, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo was also not indicted for killing Eric Garner. He choked the unarmed Garner to death in an illegal move for the NYPD, and the whole thing was caught on video. There was no murky witness testimony like the Mike Brown case. The medical examiner on the case called Garner's death a homicide. Yet nothing happened to Pantaleo. White supremacist police forces continue to terrorize and kill members of black communities rather than serve and protect them. And they continue to get off scot-free.
By all measures, we have failed to make the US a society where every member is extended the same rights. Our immigration, policing, criminal justice, and prison systems (just to name a few) are devastating lives and ravaging communities. Millions of undocumented people literally have no rights--they cannot even work or drive legally. At the same time, Americans of color who are equal citizens on paper, continue to see their rights consistently violated in reality. Race is still the greatest indicator of wealth and privilege in the US. In 2011, Pew found that the median wealth of white households was 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. By no means are we a country where everyone is treated as a first-class citizen. And we have been given ample time, if not to achieve complete equality, at least to have made significantly more progress than we have. I want to keep hoping that we can further equalize American society. But at times like these, it is hard to keep up hope.