What does it mean to love a country that does not love you back? This is a question that Black and brown Americans, and members of other marginalized groups, have been asking themselves for centuries. But with Donald Trump’s return to power, many other Americans are confronting that question for the first time. And they are now being forced to confront painful answers.
The tragic killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis illustrate this. For white liberals and other white people of conscience, this means understanding that your skin color provides no guarantee of absolute protection against state violence in the Age of Trump. Immigrants who have been in the United States for decades are living in fear of being deported. The Trump administration has rendered their “Americanness” and sense of belonging precarious and suspect.
