You probably have seen some of the images of children holding signs that say “I AM A CHILD” at recent protests. Art is often defined as something that inspires strong feelings. The iconic photos of the child who depicted on the cover of Time Magazine are one example of art because of the power in the imagery. Paola Mendoza’s “I AM A CHILD” is an example of art in the form of four simple words, one underlined, which when held by children turns every picture into equally powerful imagery.
The Washington Post published the story behind the signs.
An homage to the 1968 “I Am a Man” protest led by Martin Luther King Jr., the signs were meant to send a message to lawmakers who, creator Paola Mendoza said, seemed to have lost sight of the fact that children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with or without their parents were still, in fact, children.
“I wanted to humanize these children because the only way this unconscionable treatment continues to happen is when these children are dehumanized,” Mendoza said. “And we’ve seen the president do that, calling them or their families animals and criminals and gang members and rapists. We’ve seen Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions talk about smuggling children like drugs, like they’re not people. So it was important to me to remind all adults, no matter what your political ideology is that these are children. That’s it. They’re children. And they have a human right to stay with their parents.”
This message — and the photographs taken by Kisha Bari — was front and center at the mass immigration protest that brought thousands to Washington on Saturday and many more to similar marches around the country organized to oppose the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” crackdown on migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Several more of the photos of children holding the signs are on Kisha Bari’s website.
Tweet from Paola Mendoza, Film Director, Co-author of NYT Bestseller #TogetherWeRise. Co-founder @WeAreSoze. Co-founder @resistancerev & Women’s March OG. Mama to Mateo, put this on her Twitter feed
A child is a child
no matter what country
they were born in
A child is a child
even when they cross the
border
A child's desire to stay
with their parents
is a human right
In homage to the iconic
I AM A MAN photo
I am proud to present
I AM A CHILD
Here’s a collection of photos from Teen Vogue: Paola Mendoza Explains the "I Am a Child" Protest Photos
A collection of Kisha Bari’s photo’s Documenting the Resistance is also on her website.
It wasn’t a happy Fourth of July. The only good news you could find was in a cave in Thailand something is amiss in the world. When the far right government of Poland has purged their own version of the Supreme Court (see Protesters across the country accused the government of undermining the constitution with a power grab in the highest sanctum of the law" ) how could anyone not worry about a similar thing happening here?
I feel like we are under siege by a Trumpian force of SWAT-black clad storm-troopers, pretend cops who never faced real danger, armed to the teeth wearing ICE on their jackets with ice in their veins. Some have “Gang Unit” on the back of their bulletproof vests. Like they have ever done the perilous job of members of real police gang units. I have a friend who worked the Massachusetts Corrections Department who did a nightshift ride-along with the state and Boston joint police gang unit into Boston’s high-crime Roxbury neighborhood and they told him to bring his own gun along just in case. Of course, they were dealing with gang members who usually had guns themselves. As I said, real cops.
Trump and his minions are out to destroy all the freedoms and civil rights I’ve taken for granted.
The newcomers to the land of the free (that’s supposed to be us) are friendly, frightened, and yearning to be free. They are with few exceptions refugees who believed in what has tragically become the myth of a welcoming America where people could realize their dreams of life free from fear and filled with opportunity.
Perhaps some of them think Obama is still president and they can’t comprehend that the United States has a cruel malignant narcissistic bigoted president whose idea of international problem-solving was just revealed as an utterly stupid exercise in machismo: invade Venezuela.
I do not think pundits do us a service by calling Trump’s approach to refugees at the border the zero-tolerance policy. I say:
Time Magazine had it right. This is Trump’s America.
I hope the cover of Trump’s least favorite hometown tabloid has it right.
.
Read: Our immigrants, ourselves: What Trump can't take away from this great nation, the Daily News editorial