French Colonialism Is Alive and Well

Plus, the Border Patrol's racist origins

Our highlights this week include:

-        French Colonialism Is Alive and Well

-        Biden Wants More Conflict Minerals from the DRC

-        The Explicitly Racist Origins of America’s Border Patrol

-        A Movement to Mitigate the Harm of Mandatory Reporting

-        And Jonathan keeps us grounded with a lamentation

Jonathan’s Recommendations

French Colonialism Is Alive and Well

New Caledonia is an archipelago off the eastern coast of Australia that France colonized in the 1850s. The native Kanak people outnumber the French. But the colonizers brought in a lot of laborers from Polynesia and Southeast Asia to work the rich local nickel mines. Those laborers typically align their votes with the French on whom they are economically dependent. So the Kanaks are a minority in their own democracy. And the French now seek to dilute their electoral influence even further through changes to the country’s constitution. A helpful video explains all the details of the recent referenda in New Caledonia, and the consequent violent clashes between Kanak people and French security forces. The playbook here is hundreds of years old. Displace native people with settlers. Bring in a buffer population to occupy a new space in the social hierarchy between native people and settlers. Win the buffer population’s loyalty by giving them some privileges the native people don’t have. Claim a popular mandate for settler rule over native objections. France and others have done this many times before. But it leads to tragedy. At least seven people have died in recent weeks. Tension is high. France has sent thousands of troops to the islands, and both sides are well-armed. Pray for peace, justice, and the end of colonial rule.

-            Learn about what’s happening in New Caledonia

Biden Wants More Conflict Minerals from the DRC

Since 1996, about 6 million people have died during armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some of the militant groups are among the worst human rights violators in the world. You and I fund this violence through the purchase of electric cars, smart phones, and other electronics. The DRC has some of the world’s largest deposits of cobalt and coltan, resources used to make electronic devices. Rebel groups smuggle those resources and distribute them all over the planet. Corrupt Israeli billionaire, Dan Gertler, owns a number of unsafe mines with horrifying labor practices in the country, and has so poisoned the business around mining in the DRC that western companies won’t operate there. The US currently has sanctions on him, but Joe Biden wants to ease them in exchange for Gertler selling his shares in his mines so that western companies can re-enter the market as US demand for cobalt and coltan rises. Gertler could soon sell his stakes for enormous gain with no accountability. In other words, the administration’s focus is not the continued exploitation, displacement, death, and genocide of the Congolese, or accountability for atrocities and corruption. It is ensuring corporate profitability and a constant stream of consumer electronic goods for Americans. Followers of Jesus must reject that choice. Our flourishing does not necessitate another’s poverty, and our wealth must not require another’s suffering. All people’s freedom is bound up together, and our political priorities should reflect that reality.

-            Read about the crisis in the Congo here

Sy’s Recommendations

The Explicitly Racist Origins of America’s Border Patrol

Mother Jones published an article this week about the history of America’s Border Patrol and border security policy. It’s a great example of how historical context demystifies the present and makes the news more comprehensible. Was it jarring to hear Donald Trump openly court Norwegian immigrants while disparaging immigrants of color? Well, the US built its entire border policy regime around the brashly-stated goal of keeping non-White immigrants out. Or maybe this sounds familiar: One reason politicians wanted to create the Border Patrol a century ago was rumors of people using fraudulent votes by immigrants from Mexico to rig elections. And the photos of border agents on horseback with whips chasing Haitian immigrants are more comprehensible when you learn that the model for the first Border Patrol was the Texas Rangers, who hunted people fleeing slavery. You will find historical parallels in this story for everything from Fox News interviews of angry border ranchers, to Governor Greg Abbott taking border policy into his own hands, to Republican rhetoric about “an invasion.” Reading history like this forces us to confront a lot of ugly truth, but we can come out on the other side of that confrontation as people who are less surprised by what’s going on around us, and more prepared to resist injustice.

-            Read the Article

Addressing the Harms of Mandatory Reporting

In January, I wrote here about the encouraging trend of legislatures experimenting with diverting certain types of emergency calls away from the police, in recognition of the fact that cops are not appropriate first responders in many situations. A similar encouraging trend is just beginning to arise in the realm of child welfare. As we’ve talked about on Shake the Dust, child welfare investigations are invasive and traumatizing, and they almost exclusively happen to low-income BIPOC. They have also consistently increased in number for years, with no accompanying increase in the detection of child neglect or abuse. So some states have set their sights on the mandatory reporting regime, narrowing the scope of who counts as a mandatory reporter, training reporters on common misunderstandings about reporting requirements, and setting up alternative hotlines for families who need help finding services and supports instead of an investigator. Please pray this trend continues for the sake of so many millions of our most marginalized families.

-            Read about addressing the harms of mandatory reporting

Staying Grounded with Jonathan

Palestinian poet and playwright, Khaled Juma wrote “Oh Rascal Children of Gaza” during an Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2014. It is a short, powerful poem lamenting the deaths of so many children. And amidst that profound devastation, there is immense beauty, resilience, and the honoring of innocent lives lost. His words push me to be grateful and to grieve, to remember and to lament, to appreciate and to mourn. I thank God for the children in my life and mourn those who are gone. Doing both of these faithfully is core to being human.

-            Read the poem or watch it recited

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Jonathan and Sy