It was never about crime. It was always about white supremacy
ICE raids, court ambushes, and racial terror aren’t "mistakes" they’re part of the plan. It’s time to respond to this chaos with a backbone.
The images no longer surprise anyone. This alone should terrify us all. On Friday afternoon, masked agents in cladded vests and unmarked cars tore families and a community apart in real time. A flash-bang grenade was detonated in a San Diego neighborhood just to arrest a busboy. This is America in 2025. These are no longer outliers or mistakes. They are deliberate, calculated, choices made by an increasingly out of control executive branch.
ICE as an apparatus seems less keen on enforcing laws, and more interested in acting without impartiality or even restraint. It’s staging public crackdowns designed to intimidate communities of color, and reassure a political base that is continually fueled by lies and racial grievance. Cities like San Diego have become the latest stages for this disgusting militarized performance, with kitchen workers arrested and neighborhoods rattled by war theater tactics. The arrests are rarely about actual threats. Unless dying children with cancer count as MS-13 now. No, these latest arrests are all about visibility and overt domination.
What happened in San Diego was not an accident. It was a message as clear as day.
Many still claim that most white Americans don’t support Trump. The data paints a starkly different picture.
In 2024, a majority of white voters backed him once again (aided by some improvements in his hispanic and young voter turnout - I guess not only white voters can be lied to). By March-2025, more than half still approved of his presidency, even as his administration leaned harder into authoritarian tactics. Meanwhile, Black, Latino, and Asian American communities have course corrected what might have been seen as long term support and now clearly reject him in poll after poll in overwhelming numbers.
This pattern, sadly, is longstanding. And not discussed enough. I wonder why? White voters have consistently formed the backbone of Trump’s support. If we are at the brink of collapse, as Republicans consistently remind us, it’s so very clear who loudly led us here. And it sure as fuck wasn’t hard working immigrants.
Pointing to exceptions among communities of color doesn’t change that reality. The emperor (and his band of idiot supporters) has no clothes and everyone can see it now. Well, mostly everyone. What I think this shows us is how pervasive these supremacist ideologies are, and how the white power structure adapts itself to survive when threatened by varying communities of color rising in their respective statuses.
It’s clear that now, choosing not to engage is also a choice. The refusal to confront family members, to challenge bigotry in the workplace, or to speak out publicly keeps the current order intact. Their denial of this fact, doesn’t make it any less true.
Avoiding discomfort has become its own form of endorsement. When that becomes the social norm, abuse continues unchallenged.
I was once so hopeful for the future of this country. It’s clear to see now, though, how naive that sentiment was. What once seemed like a country on the brink of the future, has now stunningly regressed so far, I don’t honestly recognize this place. It’s obvious to me now that Barack Obama’s presidency didn’t usher in any kind of post-racial era. It instead triggered a racist backlash that not even I could see coming. Conservative media, birther conspiracies, obstruction in Congress; these were not fringe responses. They were mainstream racist political strategies that cemented themselves in everyday culture.
Obama perhaps to his own disservice, with the important context of the threat this orange man has turned into, leaned into the absurdity of it and framed Trump as a pathetic joke. It was hilarious at the time. Trump was a joke. But some part of me thinks knowing what we know about Trump, perhaps this was the moment he decided to run and ruin all of our collective normie lives. We all remember that White House Correspondent’s Dinner. It is still funny.
Trump’s rise followed this period of time directly. He didn’t emerge in a vacuum. He filled a void created by resentment, fear, and a foaming-at-the-mouth desire to reassert racial and cultural dominance after a symbolic shift in power. Democrats, of course, continued to govern through the lens of polite civility, while that train left the Republican station in 2007 (and has never been seen since).
ICE Has Become a Symbol of Political Violence
Fast forward a decade and some change. In 2025, ICE’s evolution as an agency is clear and final. It’s no longer just a tool of immigration enforcement. It’s been retooled as an instrument of political theater for the benefit of a few rich men, who happen to own for profit prisons.
This is the new America under Trump. Agents dressed in tactical gear conduct raids in civilian neighborhoods. Legal residents are swept up in mass arrests. Citizens are detained for hours, with their REAL-ID’S questioned as false. Courtrooms are transformed into ambush sites. Even judges and defense attorneys now face legal threats for protecting due-process and basic human rights.
These actions are clearly not about safety. How can they be? They’re about domination and spectacle.
Some responses to these horrors have come quickly. Governor Gavin Newsom expanded legal defense funding for immigrants. San Diego’s mayor and members of Congress condemned the raids. Privacy laws are under review to prevent federal overreach.
But these responses are often piecemeal and leave a lot to be desired when real communities are on the brink of what seems like all out assault by our own government. While some leaders act, others have been hesitant, cautious, or completely silent. In sanctuary states like California, even the word “sanctuary” has become politically fraught. That should alarm us.
Democratic officials have a responsibility not just to govern, but to defend the values they claim to uphold. Right now, that defense often feels timid, and based on right-leaning, and obviously biased, polls and media.
Some white voters believe that backing strongman tactics ensures their overall safety. History tells a different story. Authoritarianism doesn’t stop expanding once it gains ground. It always turns inward. It punishes dissent from every direction. And the people who once felt protected by its reach often find themselves next in line. First it’s economically. Then seemingly all at once.
Marginalized communities have always understood this. They’ve seen the cycles. Generations of brown, black, asian, Indian, LGBTQ,(the list goes on and on) Americans have lived these cycles. They know, and we know, what comes next. But they’re also taking note of who chooses to intervene, and who stays on the sidelines.
We Don’t Need More Civility. We Need Moral Clarity
This moment doesn’t require better manners or gentler phrasing to enable already fascistic voters to suddenly “see the light” and vote for Democrats, like some absurd centrist figures suggest. This moment requires courage. The kind that speaks clearly, acts decisively, and doesn’t wait for permission. More importantly, it doesn’t cede fucking moral ground.
If you oppose what’s unfolding, say so. Say it publicly. Say it without hedging or softening your stance. A culture of silence won’t protect democracy or your bank account. It only ensures the gradual erosion of both your hard earned income, and your safety as a citizen in this country.
There’s no waiting for the spark anymore. It’s already lit. The flash-bang scar on a street in San Diego are still fresh on the ground. We’re watching the institutions around us shift under the weight of these policies. We’re watching norms dissolve. And we’re watching powerful, leveraged, politicians, tactically incapable of meeting the moment without poll tests or (what i’m dubbing) consultant-detachment-syndrome verbiage. You know what I mean. The elite’s artful detachment of words to meaning when things are hard, and polls don’t provide a clear way forward.
To them I say, get fucked. It’s clear where you lack in moral turpitude and vision. Step aside, and let the moral fighters take this lead here.
It’s clear the question isn’t whether things will get worse. It’s who will step up to protect you and your communities before they do.
You don’t need to see everything collapse before taking action. You only need to recognize that the collapse has started.
And you need to decide ** like right now** what you’re going to do about it.
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