Wave The Mexican Flag

If you’re reading this, you already know we’re living in unspeakably stupid times.

Image: a brave protestor deals with our unspeakably stupid times.

To quickly recap: our Tangerine Titan of a fascist leader has essentially decided that in order to distract from his top aide alleging he raped kids with Jeffery Epstein, he is going to round up undocumented people in LA and make their lives hell.

The people of LA understandably took offense to their fellow countrymen and neighbors getting detained and did their best to prevent ICE (aka Stephen Himmler Miller’s gestapo) from doing this and when they couldn’t save everyone, the patriotic people of LA took to the streets to protest.

And they did such a remarkably good job, that even the bumbling dorks at the LAPD had to applaud their efforts and ability to peacefully organize!

So of course our Carotene Commander in Chief freaked out because the peaceful protest in LA defied his attempt to instill fear (and refused to even try to hang Mike Pence.) This led to him sending in the National Guard and now 700 marines and that led to…

Trump’s Second Term in One Photo

Now, in my opinion, every news outlet should be focused on why the Trump administration wants to spend over 100 million dollars to send tax payers to jail while violating the constitution and using the military to attack our own citizens.

Sadly we’ve reached the societal point where instead we must pretend there is a moderate position between the two sides. One that is sympathetic to the plight of the undocumented while still criticizing the protests for not being perfect.

The most prevalent of these hall monitoring criticisms by the “well meaning” literati that I follow has been the use of the Mexican flag at these protests.

“Don’t the protesters understand that the only way to get the moderates on our side is to use the American flag? That way it is crystal clear that Trump is using the military against Americans!” The thinking goes.

The argument, which again I concede is likely well meaning, is a stupid one. Everyone making it should feel embarrassed.

For one, history has never had a perfect protest. That’s not how protests work. If a group of people have been systematically disenfranchised for generations, not all of them are going to protest in some sort of perfect, photogenic manor. Expecting them to do so is both foolish, unproductive, and likely just an excuse by the perpetually unwilling to absolve themselves of never getting involved.

Second, it’s important to remember that even if the protests were somehow a perfect unicorn, they would not be treated as such by our ruling class. The reason people are generationally disenfranchised is because their exploitation makes certain people rich. Those people are not going to let “facts” and “reality” prevent them from attempting to complicate the narrative. Thats why history books remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs protests looking like this:

actually they make photos like this black and white so it feels like the struggle was long ago.

That’s despite the media at the time portraying the protests like this:

Which is why it’s an important reminder that…they’re never going to portray any protests 100 percent favorably. If the protestors flew exclusively American flags, the media and powers that be would focus on another detail to excuse their lack of empathy for the cause. When you join in by trying to win over moderates, you do their work for them. Stop trying to win an unwinnable game. Instead, let complex people be complex and stop babying the people who say other people’s feelings don’t matter.

This is especially true when the issue at hand is not electoral. We don’t need everyone to pour into the streets of LA to create justice (although sure, that would be nice.) We just need more. We need more people to feel welcome in these protests without feeling tone policed or hall monitored out of their own cultures to better soothe your psyche over the images you’re seeing.

Which brings us back to the Mexican flags. In my home state of California, I was raised by two cultures: American and Indian. Their coexistence was not always perfect, but it was real. Real enough that I never felt half Indian or half American but instead both. Anyone who questioned my Americanness when I wore Indian clothes or attended Indian functions was an idiot. (Anyone who questioned my Indian credentials because I spoke in American slang or got a B in math was my mom.)

The point being, their Mexican heritage is important for many Americans especially in California. And they will give you several clearly true reasons for why that is specifically important to them from California historically being a part of Mexico to it even being where they (or their relatives) specifically were born. Even more important, it’s obvious that they are specifically being targeted by the Trump administration for this heritage and set of beliefs. (Sadly, as a True American, I refuse to learn about this, because learning is against my American Culture.)

Jokes aside: to fly that flag high isn’t to hide their American identity, it’s to show that their heritage will always be a crucial part of their American identity.

And if it is important to them then as their Californian and American neighbor, it is important to me. We should always choose to be loyal to our people over the oligarchs that seek to divide us for profit. Which is why:

Trying to tell protestors to be perfect is a waste of all of our time. Trying to tell protestors to hide a part of their identity is a waste of all of our time. Trying to find reasons for why you can watch a fascist torch our neighborhoods and not get involved is a waste of our time. So stop wasting our time and get involved. At the very least, let that Mexican flag fly high!

Inshallah Vatto!