Dignity For My Muslim Students And Their Families (From the Book United We Stand, Free Ebook Download)
Dignity For My Muslim Students And Their Families
Featured essay from the book United We Stand: Essays On Protest And Resistance (FREE EBOOK DOWNLOAD)
"Dignity For My Muslim Students And Their Families " by Katie Lapham was originally published as part of a collection of essays in the book, United We Stand: Essays On Protest And Resistance (Garn 2017). We are featuring select essays from the book and offering the entire collection as a FREE EBOOK DOWNLOAD. Notable contributions from George Lakoff, Denny Taylor, Yohuru Williams, Jonothan Foley, Charlene Smith, Katie Lapham, Paul Thomas, Steven Singer, Russ Walsh, Steve Nelson, Anne Haas Dyson, David Joseph Kolb, more. Download United We Stand: Essays On Protest And Resistance ebook for free (EPUB FORMAT). The paperback book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other select retailers.
By Katie Lapham
Katie Lapham is a NYC Public School Teacher and Author of the “Critical Classrooms, Critical Kids” Blog
The majority of U.S. citizens do not support the current predator-in-chief.* He does not speak for us or represent our views. With every ounce of energy we can summon from our weary bodies (and souls), we vehemently condemn Donald Trump. Almost daily, protests against Trump and his inner circle take place around the world. In our free time we make signs, call our government representatives, send postcards, and attend rallies all in resistance to the new administration. Here in New York City, we also scrub off swastikas and other hate messages scrawled on playground equipment and subway trains. As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Brooklyn, I’m particularly outraged by Trump’s Muslim ban, which temporarily bars citizens – including refugees – of Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Iran from entering the United States.
For the past seven years, I have had the privilege of working with English-language learners from Yemen and Sudan, two of the countries included in the Muslim ban. Their families are not terrorists. They are not a national security threat. In fact, the CATO Institute recently reported that “Foreigners from those seven nations have killed zero Americans in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between 1975 and the end of 2015.” My current students – aged five to eleven – trade Pokémon cards and read Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They are artists, writers and mathematicians. My Muslim students play soccer and make drawings of purple horses and flowers. They cry when they fall on the ice and bleed. Last year, one student broke my heart when she regularly interrupted me to tell me that her cousins in Yemen had no food and were starving. And in November, a truly perplexed fourth grader asked me, "Why does Trump think we are terrorists?"
While the horrors in Syria have been widely reported, and rightly so, mainstream media barely makes a peep about the bloodshed in Yemen. According to UNICEF, one child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen. Children there are severely malnourished and lack access to clean water, food and medical care. This is due – in large part – to a civil war that has been raging in Yemen since 2015. Not surprisingly, the United States has been involved in the conflict as an arms supplier to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which through its attacks on Houthi rebels, has indiscriminately murdered thousands of Yemeni civilians, including children. Zaid Jilani, in his January 25, 2017 article in The Intercept, said Trump's Muslim immigration executive order is “...like a twisted version of the you-break-it-you-buy-it Pottery Barn rule: If we bomb a country or help destabilize its society, we will then ban its citizens from being able to seek refuge in the United States.”
Regarding Sudan, we all have heard about the atrocities that have taken place in Darfur since 2003. According to the United Nations, the genocide in Darfur has contributed greatly to the displacement of an estimated 3.5 million people in Sudan. Much less known though is Jebel Marra in Darfur province, which since 2004 has also been under violent attack by President Omar al-Bashir. Amnesty International has compelling evidence showing that in 2016 alone, 30 attacks involving chemical weapons have occurred in Jebel Marra. Amnesty’s Director of Crisis Response, Tirana Hassan, paints a grim picture of the aftermath of these attacks by noting, “...babies screaming with pain before dying, young children vomiting blood. The images we have seen are truly shocking.” Food insecurity, lack of medical care, a raging civil war in South Sudan, among other barbarities, have also befallen Sudanese civilians.
If we Americans were living in such circumstances, wouldn’t we want to be afforded the opportunity to resettle in a more stable and open society, perhaps to reunite with family members? Here in the United States, we have a strong tradition of welcoming immigrants and refugees, and of fighting intolerance and injustice. Beginning with the Quakers, Amish and Huguenots in the late 1600s, the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for example, has had a long tradition of opening its community to refugees, including recent arrivals from Sudan, Somalia and Iraq. Immigrants and refugees enrich our lives. For Trump to close our nation’s doors to them is un-American. It is not who we are.
As the school year progresses, my Muslim students may want to discuss recent events with me. The older ones may wonder why their countries were singled out. I may have to explain to them why Saudi Arabia, Egypt and UAE – countries producing a large number of anti-American terrorists, including those behind 9/11 – were not listed in Trump's Muslim ban, and why they are U.S. allies while the U.S. simultaneously bombs or imposes sanctions on Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Iran. How many people know that this was happening under President Obama? Or perhaps my students will just want to tell me about Pokèmon trainers. Whatever awaits me, I will continue to rage inside against this grave injustice. My newcomer kindergartener will reach for my hand, as she always does, and I will think about how lucky she is to have arrived here before 2017. I will continue to wonder about the safety and well-being of her relatives in Yemen while – through gestures and individual words – she tells me the names of the shapes she's learned and asks to borrow one of my books. The humanity I experience in my school on a daily basis is comforting, and, I believe, reflects the decency and compassion of most U.S. citizens. Observing my students – Muslim, Hispanic, Jewish, Black, White – all being kids together is, for me, the greatest joy of teaching.
Trump's actions and rhetoric, on the other hand, are vile and inhumane. He must be stopped, for as we are witnessing, he is an impediment to our ability to become a more tolerant, democratic and caring society. Trump appears to want the opposite and will lie to get it. I vow to protect all of my English-language learners as best I can. During the school day, I will read picture books featuring Muslim children and refugees, and I will stay informed so that I can address any questions or concerns my students may have. I will also uphold NYC Chancellor Carmen Fariña’s policy on immigration as outlined in her January 30, 2017 letter to parents. I will not inquire about anyone’s immigration status, and any information I know about my students and their families will remain confidential. I will not grant unlimited access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In addition to referring our immigrant families to public services – ActionNYC and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs – Chancellor Fariña’s letter included a message of solidarity. An immigrant herself, Fariña wrote, “We take pride in our diversity. Immigrant parents, students, principals, teachers and other staff are a part of what makes our schools, and New York City, the amazing, strong, vibrant places they are. Whether you or your family arrived 100 years or 100 days ago – you are New Yorkers – and we stand with you.” I echo her sentiments.
Outside of school, I will continue to attend rallies and speak out against the racist and xenophobic rhetoric seeping from the Oval Office like clouds of toxic green air. On February 2, I joined thousands of Yemeni-Americans at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall to peacefully protest Trump’s Muslim ban and to stand in solidarity with the hundreds of Yemeni deli owners who closed their stores for eight hours that day. On a piece of cardboard, I wrote I love my Yemeni bodega** and my Yemeni students. I printed out an image of the Arabic spelling of love and glued it to my poster. Yemeni men and women – some draped in flags representing both the US and Yemen – asked to take a picture with me. “Thank you,” they said to me while clutching their hearts and smiling. I want the Muslim community to know that unlike Donald Trump, I value their lives. I don’t see myself or any other immigrant group as better than they are. Working with my Muslim students has helped me to grow not just as an educator but also as a human being. I will resist Trump always.
* I am crediting Winona LaDuke for this term.
** bodega is a term used in NYC when referring to a deli or small corner grocery store.
United We Stand: Essays on Protest and Resistance Free eBook Download
The following chapter excerpt was featured in a collection of essays originally published in 2017 in United We Stand: Essays On Protest And Resistance. Now available as a free ebook download (EPUB FORMAT). Notable contributions from George Lakoff, Denny Taylor, Yohuru Williams, Jonothan Foley, Charlene Smith, Katie Lapham, Paul Thomas, Steven Singer, Russ Walsh, Steve Nelson, Anne Haas Dyson, David Joseph Kolb, more. The paperback book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other select retailers.