Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/can-children-go-to-jail/5025822/
Writing takes bravery. Writing about yourself takes another level of bravery, steeped in vulnerability. A friend and colleague approached me with this piece about their experience discussing their immigration status with children. I found the writing to be powerful, honest, and extremely vulnerable.
Immigration in the United States is as lauded as it is controversial. It touches everyone, whether indigenous, immigrant or descended from immigrants. Discussing immigrant experiences, historic and current, bad and good, is wildly important to our understanding of one another. The fears that go along with that experience are not to be overlooked, and play a big role in the writing of this piece. For this reason, I am submitting this work on behalf of the writer, who feels the need to remain anonymous. As we discussed the possibility of the piece being published, the writer said to me:
“I write to preserve my sanity and as a way of being unapologetically myself. And yet, I can’t bring my full self into expression due to fear of persecution. Because of the times we live in, I’m constantly navigating the duality of being disenfranchised as an immigrant and working to break a system that has silenced me. It’s with a heavy ...