Celeste Ng on family separations at U.S. border: ‘What do you believe in?’
"If you'd been walking down Mass Ave and seen a crying, lost child, what would you do?"
Celeste Ng wants to tell you a story. The acclaimed Cambridge-based author of “Everything I Never Told You” and “Little Fires Everywhere” said on Twitter that she was giving family members a walking tour of Harvard Square on Monday when they came across a wailing little girl outside J.P. Licks. The girl was about 3 or 4 years old, according to the author, and was surrounded by a group of adults trying to help her. She couldn’t speak through her tears.Suddenly, a woman came running from a nearby shop and scooped the girl in her arms and the situation “became clear,” Ng said. They were tourists and the child had wandered out of the shop, away from her mother, and got lost.The Cambridge writer shared the story on Twitter on Wednesday, saying she’d been thinking about it since it occurred, connecting it to the separation of families at the U.S. border.“What a terrifying thing for this mom and child: to be far from home, to be separated and not know where the other was,” Ng wrote. “And, in the case of the child (maybe the mother too?), to be unable to speak to those around. Now imagine that instead of trying to help, the passers-by had taken the child away. Now imagine that instead of trying to calm the child, they’d put her in a cage. Now imagine that instead of the mother coming back, she’d been locked in jail.”
More than 2,000 children were separated from their parents in recent weeks under the Trump administration’s, now-abandoned, zero-tolerance policy for families entering the United States illegally, according to the Associated Press. Following international backlash, President Donald Trump stopped the forced separations through an executive order, and, on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days.
Ng called on her followers to take “small actions” to foster “inclusion and tolerance and love.”
“I realize this scene from Monday and what’s happening at the border have many differences,” she wrote. “But I keep thinking it, and wishing we’d see the similarities first. Ask yourself: If you’d been walking down Mass Ave and seen a crying, lost child, what would you do? Then extend that to the separations of children at the border, to the refugees searching for safety worldwide, to the people everywhere just trying to keep their kids safe & alive.”
Read the full thread below:
My cousins came to visit and I took them on a walking tour of Harvard Square. The Harvard campus is here, and it’s all intermingled with shops and there are a lot of tourists.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
She was probably about 3 or 4, white, dark blond hair. She was crying so hard she couldn’t talk. Her hair was tangled around her face.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
She couldn’t really talk. Tears were running down her face and she was wailing and screaming. Everyone was trying to figure out what to do and how to help her.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
The mother must have stood there for a full minute, just holding her girl. Then she sank down onto the steps of the shop and put her hands in her head and just sobbed, hugged her daughter again, sobbed some more. Everyone watching was teary, but relieved.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
What a terrifying thing for this mom and child: to be far from home, to be separated and not know where the other was. And, in the case of the child (maybe the mother too?), to be unable to speak to those around.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Now imagine that instead of being white, the mother and child were Latinx, or Muslim, or black, or anything other than white.
Now imagine that instead of being a tourist on vacation, they were running from danger and couldn’t go back.— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
I realize this scene from Monday and what’s happening at the border have many differences. But I keep thinking it, and wishing we’d see the similarities first.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Here’s another thing you can do, if you can: if you’ve got family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, who don’t see the similarities here, tell them a story like this. Tell them why you care, and keep trying to convince them they should care.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
I haven’t been calling for #smallacts in a while, because I had to choose between that and my other work–writing and taking actions of my own. But I hope you’re still out there looking for small ways to fight intolerance and hate, and promote acceptance and inclusion.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Ha, StayFocusd just cut me off because I exceeded my allotted Twitter time. But I have a phone, StayFocusd. 😈
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Talk to neighbors and friends and encourage them to act, too. Reach out to your local mosques and refugee centers and tell them you’re with them and ask if you can help—they will be glad to hear from you. The #smallacts tag has many more ideas.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Maybe you hear anti-Muslim or anti-gay slurs in the halls of your school. Push your teachers/admins to address this. Ask in speakers, hold discussion forums, start an organization for solidarity to spread awareness that this is not okay.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Think about what you know and who you know and what you can add. Are you a lawyer? Maybe you can organize colleagues to donate their time/services to address the MANY legal battles we’re facing now.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Are you in business? Work for a major cooperation? Pressure your company to make a public statement about their beliefs. And then make them stick to it. There’s no such thing as “being neutral” when it comes to human rights.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
Think about what you have that you can offer. Restaurant? Call the offices of new political challengers, or refugee centers, homeless shelters, anyone who’s working to fight bigotry. Ask if they could use a food donation—for fundraisers or to feel staff prob working overtime.
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) June 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/pronounced_ing/status/1011964095644528640
