when they come for you
This is a post about the ongoing deportations from the United States.
A person at my own university has been disappeared. Arrested, gone, just like that.
I heard about it just before class, when I just happened to check my phone, just happened to check the news, and it was on the front page. "Oh my god," I said loudly. "Guys, it's someone from [our university] that they're trying to deport for pro-Palestinian activism."
"Yeah, that happened yesterday," a classmate said. He turned back to his phone. The professor started class.
Why are so many people not freaking out about this? Why is the reaction, when someone at our very university has their rights violated, is kidnapped by the authorities, a shrug?
I couldn't focus at all during class.
Yesterday evening, Friday night, I was at a party, and my politically aware friends were there. The mood was grim, one of those times when you're trying to have fun but you're panicking inside, and the dissonance of trying to pretend just makes you want to sob.
My friend who studies authoritarianism is in same school within our university as the person who was disappeared. The university sent out an email to the people in her class, and then to a wider group. They had removed one line: "We expect that the government will adjudicate this case fairly."