Thousands of Los Angeles community members protested on June 14 and continue to fight back against ICE raids. (Photo: Ground Game LA)
I picked up a family in my cab on Sunday — a mom, a grandmother, a teenage son, and a younger son in grade school. I got them from a hotel in El Segundo and drove them to the CarMax in Inglewood, right next door to a Home Depot. ICE raided multiple Home Depots across L.A. in the last week.
They were speaking Spanish when they got in. Before I even pulled off, I said, “I don’t know where y’all are from, but please be careful. ICE has been out heavy in L.A.”
The mom looked at me and said: “Well… they’re just picking up the workers…”
And then she caught herself. But I caught the tone. Dismissive.
Like I had overstepped.
Like, how dare I assume she should be concerned.
Like proximity to whiteness was enough to keep her and her family safe.
That moment stayed with me. It reminded me of what Resmaa Menakem writes in My Grandmother’s Hands:
“White-body supremacy doesn’t live in our thinking brains — it lives and breathes in our bodies.”
It’s not just a system; it’s a survival reflex. We’re taught to believe that if we do everything “right,” we’ll be protected. That safety is something we can earn if we just perform well enough. I thought that too. That if I followed the rules and was one of the “good ones” I would be okay. But it doesn’t work.
I was still labeled a welfare queen. Still convicted of a felony. Because in a system built on white supremacy, respectability politics won’t protect you.
And assimilation won’t save you either. You can live in the “right” neighborhood, speak perfect English, have papers, a good job, even citizenship. But that won’t stop them from targeting you.
Here’s the truth: proximity to whiteness won’t protect you.
- In Puerto Rico, ICE has detained Dominican immigrants based on skin tone and accent.
- In Chicago, they arrested people during routine legal check-ins.
- In Pennsylvania, they profiled drivers solely based on appearance.
- In L.A., the raids started on Friday—before any protests began. People were being detained at scheduled ICE check-ins in downtown.
So when people say “they’re just picking up the workers,” what does that even mean? What does a “worker” look like? Who decides?
ICE raids began last Friday, hitting multiple Home Depot locations across L.A. People were taken while going about their daily lives, buying supplies, heading to work, and out celebrating Pride. The timing wasn’t a coincidence.
On Sunday, June 8, 2,000 National Guard troops were deployed to Los Angeles. By Monday, another 2,000 plus 700 U.S. Marines were sent in. Not at Governor Newsom’s request, but under the President’s federalization.
There was no riot, no violent uprising to suppress. This was martial law under a different name. When Kennedy sent the Guard into Alabama in 1963, it was to protect Black children, not to suppress them. (Where was this energy on January 6th?)
L.A. says it’s a sanctuary city, but when it mattered most, local law enforcement helped detain community members. They defended ICE with violence, shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at peaceful protesters. They call it “mutual aid,” but LAPD and LASD backing up ICE isn’t aid, it’s complicity.
There is no such thing as a “good protester” or a “bad protester.” When they fired on the No Kings protesters they made it clear. That dichotomy is a trap rooted in the lie of respectability politics, a byproduct of white supremacy. It convinces Black and Brown people that our rights, our safety, our humanity depend on how well we perform — how quiet, how compliant, how “respectable.”
We’ve been trained to believe respectability is a shield. That if we dress, talk, and act right, we’ll be spared. But that’s not safety—that’s strategy. And it doesn’t work.
As The Grio aptly put it, “If you only think ‘certain’ types of Black women deserve respect… your activism is hella flawed.”
Respectability won’t stop raids. It won’t stop ICE. It won’t stop Marines on our streets. And it won’t save you from a government that moves without permission or a dress code. Because the truth is, they’re kidnapping people and calling them criminals.
Tell me: what kind of “hardened criminal” shows up to work every day?
Due process was supposed to be guaranteed — no matter your status or what uniform the detainer wears. But in Trump’s America, those protections are being snatched away before our eyes. Folks are being detained while getting groceries, heading to work, picking up their kids, and treated like they’ve already been convicted.
How do you expect people to act when their neighbors are disappearing, when the powers that be care more about protecting property than protecting people? You’re lucky all we want is equity and not revenge.
While people are vanishing and being detained, the media is distracted. Trump is literally and figuratively losing his grip, facing legal trouble, rambling through press conferences, and making desperate power grabs. The GOP is trying to cut Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and cash aid for millions of people, just so billionaires can build phallic-shaped spaceships that don’t even make it to space. Just like the Wizard of Oz, he’s a doddering old fool screaming into a mic, hoping we won’t look behind the curtain.
But we see you, Donnie. And we’re paying attention. We’re not waiting. We’re not asking. We’re moving.
This is the moment to choose:
Silence or solidarity.
Appeasement or action.
Survival or liberation.
Don’t just watch. Organize. Share. Show up. Stay informed.
Follow grassroots organizers in your city. Hold elected officials accountable—all of them. And vote like your neighbors’ freedom depends on it. Because proximity to whiteness won’t protect you, but collective power will.
