My grandparents immigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century. They fled pogroms in Russia, a little like the ones depicted in “Fiddler on the Roof.” FYI “A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group.” (Wikipedia) In Russia Pogroms were sometimes heralded by the arrival of Cossacks, the Tsars’ armed militia, on horseback grabbing people off the streets, invading their homes and places of business often times murdering it’s victims, my ancestors. It was a kind violence only exceeded by the Nazis in Germany with it’s SS troops arriving in their black limos beating Jewish people, gays and Romani and taking them to the murderous concentration camps located throughout Europe.
Today under the leadership of Trump and guys like Stevie Miller we have evolved our own uniquely American type Pogrom. American Pogroms are heralded by the arrival of ICE, poorly trained government employees, in unmarked black limos (SUVs). Our Pogrom’s racist roots are revealed in that it’s largely directed against people of color some who have been living here for generations. Almost all are working, paying taxes, living legally and one way or another trying to adjust their immigration status. Some of these victims are even attacked as they follow the rules and appear at immigration courts for adjudication and/or reaffirmation of their legal status. Others are racially profiled (thanks to Justice Kavanaugh) violently grabbed off the streets by bands of masked ICE employees arriving like their predecessors in those unmarked limos (SUVS) and taken to our uniquely American, for profit, version of concentration camps for “processing.” Some, including observers of the violence, have died, murdered on the streets of America.
It looks like a Pogram, it acts like a Pogrom, It’s IS the Trump Pogrom.
And to our great shame it will forever be so…….
