If they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night

4 May
2010


The title of this post is part of this quote by writer James Baldwin:

“If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own…. For if they take you in the morn­ing, they will be com­ing for us that night.”

I recently came across this quote on Facebook and it really struck me. While the poster was com­ment­ing on another topic it made me reflect on the cur­rent race sit­u­a­tion we are expe­ri­enc­ing here in the United States. Much dis­cus­sion has been made about immi­gra­tion laws as of late. Some have been defi­antly against them and oth­ers have been out­spo­kenly for them.

This world in its cur­rent state will never see true racial equal­ity, but how are each of us effected by such con­tro­versy about race? Whether you are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian or any other race we are all cre­ated equal. Our dif­fer­ences are we are divided by geo­graph­i­cal bound­aries that are gov­erned by dif­fer­ent enti­ties. Some gov­ern­ments are more pro­gres­sive and have tried to set up demo­c­ra­tic sys­tems to help its inhab­i­tants while oth­ers have not. But, wouldn’t you agree that we all are in the same boat since we are all part of the human race.

In regard to the United States while it does see divi­sions among the peo­ple it is rel­a­tively united. In fact nation­wide we see how well var­i­ous groups and back­grounds have begun to coex­ist together con­sid­er­ing this country’s vio­lent start. It can even be said that many of our clos­est friends are made up of peo­ple of all back­grounds.

Now let’s take a step back. Could you imag­ine your good friend who is a dif­fer­ent race than you being forced to live in a place that they may have dreamed of escap­ing from their whole life? Or them try­ing to raise a fam­ily in an envi­ron­ment where the future was so uncer­tain they feared every day would be their last?

Of course there are those from other coun­tries who live here who intend harm oth­ers like the man who attempted to bomb Times Square. But this is not a race issue. There are peo­ple who live in this coun­try, born and bred who have com­mit­ted some of the most heinous crimes in his­tory.

The fact remains that no mat­ter where we are we are not guar­an­teed com­plete free­dom. Whether here in the US or a third world coun­try. It’s just as Baldwin said: “If they take you in the morn­ing, they will be com­ing for us that night.”

Thanks for read­ing,

Literary Nobody

Toya Bryant has written 193 article(s) for this site

Toya Bryant aka Literary Nobody is a Freelance Writer/Blogger who promotes positive thinking and actions within the community and the family. She also writes about the positives and negatives of technology, internet security and social media.

  • ocbenji

    We tend to for­get what our peo­ple have done when look­ing that the mis­takes of oth­ers.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Thank you for the com­ment Ocbenji. I agree with you. We have to reflect on the role they we have played in the suc­cesses and fail­ures of this world as a whole race of peo­ple.

  • http://twitter.com/EvelynNAlfred Evelyn N. Alfred

    It’s a very scary thought. I can’t believe some­thing like this is hap­pen­ing in 2010. It could eas­ily hap­pen to another minor­ity eth­nic group…*shivers*

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Thanks for the com­ment Evelyn. It is truly a scary thought.

  • http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L1&url=http://www.literarynobody.com/2010/05/if-they-take-you-in-the-morning-they-will-be-coming-for-us-that-night.html Tweets that men­tion If they take you in the morn­ing, they will be com­ing for us that night — Topsy​.com

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  • md20737

    If we allow any­thing just for Hispanics just now black ppl are next. I dont believe in sin­gling out any­one group for treat­ment as a lesser being, but im not in charge so I dont make the rules. I think the sit­u­a­tion in AZ is a dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion and not well thought out.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    It just goes to show how pre­car­i­ous “lib­erty” is for every­one. We essen­tially are all gov­erned by all the same laws and are not guar­an­teed an absolute right to free­dom no mat­ter who we are.

  • md20737

    If we allow any­thing just for Hispanics just now black ppl are next. I dont believe in sin­gling out any­one group for treat­ment as a lesser being, but im not in charge so I dont make the rules. I think the sit­u­a­tion in AZ is a dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion and not well thought out.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    It just goes to show how pre­car­i­ous “lib­erty” is for every­one. We essen­tially are all gov­erned by all the same laws and are not guar­an­teed an absolute right to free­dom no mat­ter who we are.

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