The target the United States has against brown and black people had always been quite transparent growing up. From the exploitation of 9/11 and the way it is still being used to dehumanize people from Islamic countries. To the manipulation of every act of war, mostly committed by the United States itself, in order to arrest and deport immigrants without having anyone bat an eye. The target even demonstrated internally, as Indigenous and Black Americans have continued to fight for liberation. Liberation sought on land they either had stolen from them, or were forced onto, all to be labeled as terrorists when asking for the same basic human rights. The attack against brown and black people only becomes clearer by the day as the Trump administration passes masses of discriminatory policies at once, stripping our rights away one by one. Framing us all as predators and criminals for over a decade, to where no one questions his replacement of these labels now with the word terrorist.
I have become so desensitized to the constant updates on my screen while going on about my day. Even the texts I receive from my own family have become normality. The blatant manipulation and timing of all of the injustice this year as everyone stands by and watches has been surreal. At this point in time I feel like we can all see it most clearly in Palestine and how the media has attempted to manipulate us into acceptance. Twisting the narrative while simultaneously showing what’s being done to Palestinians as a way to normalize their very extinction.
However I have also often found small similarities in the way the media frames my own countries. Something I have noticed my entire life, but that I did not truly connect to the greater struggle until finding more friends from the Global South. Friends also living in Barcelona, away from everything. Us all reading headlines together and receiving texts about people in our own countries being arrested, beaten, or murdered without having anyone around us even react. People around us even excusing it, as they have grown up their whole lives in different European countries, being told brown and black people are something to fear.
In order to demonstrate our link I have decided to collect the texts I received this year from my family in Iran, Venezuela, and Miami and pair these messages with headlines and photos I found in my camera roll on that same date. I numbered the pages based off of the day in the year. Starting on 010/365. 10 days into 2025, when Trump was formally convicted a felon, facing 0 punishment, 10 days before his inauguration as president. Since that day I found a lot of parallels in the messages I received from both sides of my family, family across oceans, in the literal midst of war committed by the US. The very same day I’d receive their messages, I’d read headlines about innocent Venezuelans and Iranians stripped of their visas and being illegally deported for possible criminal & terrorist activity with 0 proof of it.
248/365, September 5th, is the day I decided to create this project. 2 days after Trump decided to strike a Venezuelan boat and label the 11 people killed as narco-terrorists. A claim made with 0 grounds. A label that no American has any reason to look into. Allowing for Americans to view people like my 24 year old cousin, a kid born and raised in the United States with a masters degree, as a gang member who has had coworkers stop speaking to him this year once discovering he was Venezuelan.
Starting my project in September I assumed I would be capping the messages at ones I had received through the summer. However I received more messages in my family groupchat about warships heading towards Venezuela the day I begun the project. That same day I had also read an article on Judge Edward Chen reviewing Trump’s attempt to end temporary protected status for 1.1 Haitians and Venezuelans, having rejected it considering it illegal and dangerous. Every time I attempted to complete the project, I received more messages from both sides of my family about fears of possible war. Feeling the need to include every update in hopes that no one could refute the fact that this is all connected.
To truly understand one struggle, is to first recognize the link between all of ours. Something that has somehow been made more obvious to me now, living in a city very far from my own realities, but unable to ever leave them. Luckily finding friends from both Latin America and SWANA, friends who continue to also be tethered to other realities, without any desire of ever leaving them.