Here we go again...

One out of over one million emigrants who arrived in Europe recently may have been involved in the IS attack on Paris.  To right-wing European governments like those in Poland and Hungary, that is ample reason to continue denying entrance to refugees.  To right-wing politicians like Marine LePen of France, it is an opportunity to expand their bases of paranoid xenophobes.

Needless to say, the opportunity has not been overlooked by American politicians who pander to our homegrown paranoid xenophobes.  Our current immigration policy is so rigid that only 1800 Syrians have gained asylum in the USofA over the past two years — half of them children, and only three per cent men of "fighting age" — but that's not good enough for most Republicans.  Fifteen Republican governors and all Republican presidential hopefuls are on the anti-refugee bandwagon (Christie: Not even three-year-old orphans!), and nobody should be surprised if some purple-state Democrats join them.

I can't imagine how it feels to be one of the Americans who inspire such panders; one of the rigid right-wingers who feel so afraid all the time, despite the assault rifles in their bedroom closets; who see every "outsider" (including our "African" President) as an existential threat; whose dark fantasies haunt our politics as much as they haunt their own twisted little psyches.

I'm glad I can't imagine it.  I'm sufficiently upset by what's real.

Black unlike me

I'm not black.  I don't have a clue how it feels to be a black person in this world, but I know enough to say that not being black is a distinct advantage.

I'm a lot less likely to be stopped, harassed, arrested, or killed by cops than I would be if I were a black man.  I'm a lot less likely to go to jail, but if I do, it will be after copping a much better plea than I could get if I were black.  From what I've read, heard, and seen, black cops and judges discriminate against blacks pretty much as egregiously as white cops and judges do, so just bringing more blacks into the legal apparatus won't do the trick.

What will do the trick?  Beats me.

In case you hadn't noticed, hardly anybody in the USofA gives much thought to anything that happens in Africa.  Most of the people drowning in the Mediterranean lately have been black, and the vast numbers of fatalities, while noted in the media, are not attracting a hell of a lot of hand wringing in the United States.  Most white Europeans support letting them die, to discourage more from making the attempt.  (Yes, there are plenty of Syrians and other non-blacks going down as well, but those people are, well, rather dusky, you know, and frequently Muslim.)

I try to put myself in the place of a Somali, a Nigerian, a Malian, or whatnot, but I'm afraid imagining their lives doesn't come easily.  It's a little easier imagining being a black man in the United States, but I still don't think I've "got" it.  If you're white too, you probably have the same difficulty.

I don't know what might be done, and I don't know what I, personally, can do beyond sending letters to politicians and money to relevant charities.  It's not much, but it seems to be the best I can manage, given my circumstances.  Still, there ought to be more.

Suggestions?