palisade
palisade
a fence of pales or stakes set firmly in the ground, as for enclosure or defense
The part of the future which scares me most? What we’ll allow as long as it’s on the other side of a wall.
Several mass migration events will occur in our lifetimes. The global response will determine how we think about nations, as well as the barriers between them, for decades to come. This will be a test of our collective humanity— or a demonstration of our lack thereof.
My parents left their homeland when I was a baby and hoped to raise their children somewhere less restrictive. I never developed much connection to the place I was born, in part because there was so much pressure to assimilate. We dampened the accents that gave us away, whatever form they took.
Fitting in was very important in my family. They understood that loyalties change quickly, and standing out can make you the next target. Before my dad was born, my grandpa picked a new last name at random out of the phonebook. That’s why.
It couldn’t have been easy cutting that tie to the past. In the end though, names are just labels and labels are more fluid than they seem. Tyrants use this mutability as a weapon. Why not flip the script and use it as a shield? When so much is being unceremoniously taken away there’s a quiet dignity in packing it up yourself.
Authoritarianism comes in many forms and doesn’t just constrain in the physical realm. They want you erecting borders in the mind, classifying others, and severing connections. It only works if they get you thinking in terms of insiders and outsiders. Worthy and unworthy.
Don’t let their terms define which wails you ignore and which you don’t.
ContextFall
table {border-collapse: collapse;} - Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Be Dammed - Laia Jufresa, Translated by Sophie Hughes