Colonization and Immigration
The humanitarian crisis at our southern border is another ugly hallmark of the Trump administration.
White supremacy and nationalism have been baked into border security policy, ensuring that the freedoms we promise to our citizens are not extended to certain outsiders. The human rights violations that have been endorsed on U.S. soil are unforgivable. Additionally, the vicious language the Trump administration used to describe migrants and refugees played on peoples' biases, fears, and insecurities to create an imaginary boogeyman.
This section combines our ongoing immigration crisis with broader themes of Western colonization, illustrating the “otherness” of U.S. policy and practice.
Horton Hears 545 FamiliesApproximately 1,500 children were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border when the Trump Administration instituted a “zero-tolerance” policy in 2018. Many of these children were caged in prison-like detention centers. After the courts mandated reunification in 2020, it was determined that the parents of 545 children still have not been located, further deepening the humanitarian crisis.
Tally
RomanticismIn the mid-19th century, the United States’ push westward under the concept of Manifest Destiny was accompanied by a cultural preoccupation with the relationship between man and nature. In the Sublime paintings of Hudson River School artists, the painted landscape was more than an idealized representation of a natural scene. The grandeur and resonance of these artists’ paintings reflect an America that was steadily defining itself through unprecedented industrial development and expansion of its empire at the expense of those already living on the land.
We created this editorial for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The image reminds us that, ever since its inception, America has disenfranchised, abused, and erased indigenous presence and recontextualized our crimes as some sort of awesome victory.
