People in power benefit from our division
don't do their work for them
A few days ago, one of my best friends alerted me to a trend on TikTok where several Black content creators were flooding the feed with videos as anti-ICE protests intensified throughout the US. “They’re saying that Latine people didn’t show up for BLM, so why should they care about immigration?” As a Black person, she sought my thoughts on what could be fueling the divide. I assured her that anyone pushing this rhetoric likely didn’t show up for BLM themselves. They’re not speaking from a place based in reality.
The Black Lives Matter movement sparked after the painfully slow public execution of George Floyd was one of the largest acts of protest in American history, even said to top mobilizations during the Civil Rights movement, and the show of solidarity defied demographics. Anyone present or paying attention in 2020 could see the unified force present at BLM protests. The same goes for the anti-ICE demonstrations today.
Democracy Now posted coverage of a No Kings demonstration on June 14, where two of the first people interviewed were Black men. I sent videos of both of their interviews to my friends. Look at who’s actually out on the streets advocating for the rights of their community members. Later that day, I received an email from Black Men Build announcing that their weekly Wartime Wednesday call would cover the ongoing raids with the topic ICE vs Los Angeles: Why should Black people care? From where I sat, immigrant solidarity was being nurtured on a grassroots level inside the Black community.
Today, my YouTube algorithm rose a recently posted video by Breakthrough News to the top of my feed: “Black and Immigrant Division in Chicago: How Real Is It?” One of the first lines spoken in the 18-minute documentary-style segment was, “Those that are in power benefit from our division.” It’s clear that this narrative of Black vs brown is trying to take hold, but it does nothing but serve the oppressor. Like the virus that it is, white supremacist thought needs a host to thrive, and it’s attempting to further infect the Black community. As divisionists on TikTok work to fragment the already marginalized community, they’re acting as cover so that the wheels of the Amerikan Empire can continue to run us off the rails.
Almost exactly five years after the murder of George Floyd, occupants of occupied Turtle Island are taking to the streets en masse, yet again, to protest the conditions imposed on them by the powers that be. A severe worsening of living conditions later, enraged Americans are still fighting for protections against their own government and its policies. Still, the majority have yet to grasp the anti-democratic tactics of their government to sabotage resistance. That’s why they already have a target ready to pit the historically oppressed against each other so that the government has enough time to roll back rights and continue their consolidation of power.
In an interview with Amanda Seales, independent activist Serene Sovereign replies to a question about the recent No Kings Day protest with an apathetic frustration, “…we all gather around and sing slogans, we feel good, and we listen to speeches, but what do we do afterwards?” Seales brings up the concept of “controlled rebellion.” Organizers boasted that attendance for the first nationwide anti-Trump demonstration brought out up to 5 million people. Letting attendees go home without providing them with ways to make a sustained impact is a missed opportunity. What if some of those demonstrators were willing to demonstrate regularly outside of state institutions, or fundraise for immigrant legal services, or go on a work or rent strike, or demonstrate regularly outside of state institutions? Instead, many people went home that day feeling like their one act of defiance could change things.
In 2025, it’s challenging to continue to contextualize the lack of understanding that ALL systematic oppression is connected. They’re not even hiding that it’s the same system anymore. There’s no mystery or much critical thinking required here. The dehumanization of immigrants that has led to illegal ICE raids, the dehumanization of Black people that has led to state-sanctioned murders by police, and the dehumanization of Palestinians that has allowed their genocide to continue for 20 months: they all stem from the true Axis of Evil.
While US representatives and policymakers go on TV calling brown people terrorists and invaders, the country’s president continues to openly discuss the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as if he’s weighing the decision whether to order takeout for lunch. An American Congresswoman recently cried out that the military should get back to protecting the country from people who say, Death to America, while her country’s leader is openly posting about forcing the regime change of a sovereign country. Reminiscent of the CIA-backed coup in Iran in 1953 and the other (at least) 37 times the US has been responsible for ousting or assassinating the leaders of other countries.
“Given the rampant instability in various parts of the world today, and the almost constant friction emanating from the Middle East amidst the Civil War in Syria, many leading voices in the American political sphere have floated the idea of overthrowing the regime of Syrian head-of-state, Bashar al-Assad, in favor of a government run by moderate rebel forces.”
Since at least 2016, when the above quote was published, leading voices in America have been plotting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and in 2024 they got their wish. Like clockwork, in came the moderate rebel forces. Since then, former al-Qaeda member Ahmad al-Sharaa has been propped up, photographed with, and hailed by multiple Western leaders. Just in time to normalize relations with Israel as they carry out genocide in Palestine and start a war with Iran. The US and its proxy are predictably manufacturing consent to manipulate a regime change in Iran, something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been campaigning for since 1992.
The propaganda machine inside the Imperial Core calls the United States of Amerikkka crusaders for democracy around the world as justification for them forcefully removing leaders to enforce their vision of a “democratically led country”. Most people outside the empire are long fed up with this war-mongering world order. Whether you want Iran to have access to nuclear capabilities or not, the correct course of action cannot be to start bombing their military leaders, scientists, and civilians amid diplomatic negotiations. Especially when Iran isn’t even on the list of nuclear-armed states, while the US and its partner in war crimes, Israel, are.
Back on occupied Turtle Island, the so-called pillar of democracy is gratuitously redirecting its remaining resources into the never-ending wars it manufactures. The priorities could not be clearer: Trump’s budget passes the House of Representatives, cutting $163 billion from education, housing, and medical research so that $150 billion can be funneled into the Pentagon. This is not a country that will be moved by peaceful protests, which is why they choose to suppress them.
“Nonetheless, American taxpayers in general are paying hundreds of dollars per year—and some pay many thousands per year—just to keep the federal government from defaulting on its debt.”
Militarized police and military officers have been redirected to American streets in an effort to deter citizens from getting in the habit of exercising their First Amendment rights. The state is trying to quell the very righteous outrage at the indiscriminate and illegal detention of immigrant community members as well as US citizens. Brown and Black Americans continue to be targeted by Trump’s ramped-up ICE raids. You don’t look like you’re from here has been justification enough to detain a Hispanic New Yorker, a Black military veteran, and, aggregiously, firstborn Native women among countless others. Despite Trump’s policies on immigration and war being wildly unpopular, his policies continue to be carried out even when they’re unconstitutional.
Instead of allowing the internet to turn your frustration towards the person sitting next to you, look up. There you’ll see the people pulling the strings. Keep your eye on the source of our collective deteriorating conditions. Blame those responsible for their dereliction of duty. Don’t get distracted. You may see some people panic and opt for the crabs-in-a-barrel approach.
Do not follow their lead.
We are collectively witnessing the collapse of the Amerikan Empire and too many are already reeling from its death blows. Now is not the time to fragment, it’s prime time to collectivize and direct our power. Too much is at stake.
Do not play into their manipulative hands.
You are not somehow systematically being wronged by your fellow proletariat. You’re being manipulated and abandoned by your leaders. You know, the ones who sit back and watch as more rights are denied, and more resources become scarce, and more diseases spread, and more climate disasters level towns, and more gun violence occurs, and more people die from lack of healthcare. Hint: it’s not immigrants.
We are stronger together.
That’s what the power that be fears. Keep your eye on the prize: collective liberation. Collectively, we’ll build the future we want to see on the ruins of the aforementioned fallen empire.
Our shared humanity is what will guide our resistance and restore our resilience. Black, brown, queer, and everyone else here. We all deserve the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A unified force is the only way to break out of the toxic and abusive systems that bind us all.
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