Meet my family. I am the white guy in the center. Tim and Serena are the grown ups and Antoine is on my lap, Tim is holding baby Maddie.
Being born black in America means the deck is stacked against you. If this adorable child stays in American he will never been seen as a man, but always seen as a black man.
They are not rich, how many advantages do you think he will get with a public school education in the Bronx?
Forget college, in the US it is for the rich with good test scores, or those willing to go into massive debt. A good education no longer promises a good job. Your Barista is as likely to have a Masters degree as your accountant.
Antoine could easily be killed. It is not just the cops who might kill him, in poor neighborhoods crime is high and his shooter could be a white cop, or a black child.
And if he makes it, he has a 1 in 3 chance of being sent to prison, often on a petty drug charge. Prison is the new slavery. He can then work for a corporate overlord for pennies an hour, he can eat soy patties and avoid fights, and maybe get out someday.
Once out, no one will hire him, and of course he won’t be able to vote. #BlackVotesMatter so much that white men do everything they can to take that right away from them.
Maddie has a better shot. She will still face racism and prejudice in almost every aspect of her life, and despite being born with health problems, she has a better chance of survival.
Tim and Serena want to finish school so that they have the possibility of a better future, but with two kids they can barely make ends meet, much less go to school. Even with that education they will face prejudice in the job market that will make it very hard to pay down that half a million dollars in debt.
There was a time when immigrants came to America in order to have a better shot for them and their children. Some still do, and what the find is poisoned water, food by Monsanto, out of control housing costs and a bleak future.
I can hear the responses now. “Love it or leave it”. “You don’t like it, get out.” “If America is so bad I will buy them all a one way ticket to get the F*ck out!”
Okay, let’s do it.
I had thought of beginning a Go Fund Me page to raise the money to get my adopted family out of the States, but it felt so selfish. Then I looked around and saw so many others in the same situation. Unable to make it here, but without the means to go elsewhere.
I put up one page of a web site to try to put some information out, and got requests for assistance. I have barely begun building the site when it began. It is still not built yet every day someone makes contact asking how.
I learned about a young woman who was working two fast food jobs in order to save the money to live in Germany for free college. Yes, they allow Americans to attend for free, with many programs taught in English. She told one of her co workers why she was working so hard. Soon her manager called her into the office and scolded her for ‘not being dedicated to her job’. Since she was planning to leave in 8 months he decided to cut her hours since she ‘could not be counted on’. He then changed her schedule, making it very difficult for her to work a second job. She went from 72 hours a week to working less than 30.
My unfinished web site has precious little traffic, yet everyone who found it needed help, information, a source of funding.
So now I am going to be ambitious and try to build an actual foundation that can vet people carefully and help those who are able, and motivated to relocate.
Please make sure Donald Trump’s son sees this, he has already offered to ship black people out of the U.S. and it would be great if he follows up with a donation. Tweet him and e mail him.
The new immigrants, they want to go to a place where their children have a chance for a better future. They want to leave the United States.