Photo by Victoria Bouloubasis
by Amy Fischer
North Carolina’s new policy for issuing licenses for DACA beneficiaries has made national news. People seem to be up in arms looking for ways to do something about the now infamous pink (or is it fuchsia?) stripe. Some religious and advocacy organizations have started encouraging allies to put pink tape on their licenses as an act of solidarity. While I appreciate the sentiment, I, as an ally will not be doing this to my license.
The last time I wrote a blog post about my experience as an ally, I wrote about the fear that I hold for my friends who drive without licenses. I told the story of a friend who would drive without fear, partly because she had to get around and had no other option, but also because she trusted the power of fighting back in case anything were to happen.
As a member of NC DREAM Team, I have had the privilege of speaking with a bunch of people who will be receiving these pink licenses. One person, who is a junior in high school, has told me how he and his parents have been counting down the days until March 25th because this serves as an opportunity for somebody in their family to actually have a drivers license. He says the pink stripe is wrong; he is by no means happy about it. But to him, a license is a license. He and his parents have a whole list of things that they are going to do, and will be able to do, now that there is a license in the family. Alternatively, I’ve heard the story of a young woman who says she will not be getting one of these licenses. She says that she has felt discriminated against all of her life because of her immigration status, and this is just one more instance of her being singled-out and treated wrongly. She says she will continue driving without a license and without fear.
In both of these cases, and the many more in-between, I honestly can’t relate. And putting a bit of pink tape on my license will not change this . I will not get pulled over and questioned about my status because the license in my wallet has tape on it. I won’t feel the sting of the hatred of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that refers to my friends as criminals and demands that they “get out.” And while this may be an over-generalization, for most of the folks that I have seen taping their licenses in solidarity, they seem to be the types that rarely have to take their licenses out of their wallets anyway. We don’t look suspicious. We would probably get waved right through a check point in our neighborhoods because our skin color does not evoke a threat to people’s comfort levels.
I’m not putting pink tape on my license because my solidarity comes from standing with my immigrant friends and supporting their organizing efforts, not from a lame attempt to pretend like I know what it’s like to be undocumented or singled out because of my immigration status. My solidarity allows for undocumented youth to speak for themselves, not for clergy and advocates to attempt to co-opt a struggle that isn’t theirs. Yes, this new policy is unjust. And it’s great that so many people seem fired up about it. But, if you want to do something about it, consult with the people who are directly affected to see how you can stand in solidarity.
To start, join us on March 25th. That’s the first day these pink licenses are being issued, and DACA youth and their families will be speaking out at 3:30pm at the DMV at 2431 Spring Forest Road North Raleigh, Unit 101, NC 27615. See you there.
6 comments
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March 11, 2013 at 10:37 am
Altha Cravey
Great essay! Good lesson on how to be supportive and be an ally. Thx.
March 12, 2013 at 10:19 pm
Tarheel
Why does ally equal white? That’s a huge assumption. Why do we need white people to save us? Why can’t people of color be our own allies within our communities and between communities of color? White people colonized this land and created the hierarchical systems of oppression that continue to perpetrate this and other inequalities. I personally don’t see the answer lying in white allies, yet white people are not the *only* allies.
March 12, 2013 at 10:29 pm
Amy Fischer
I by no means think that ally = white. I, myself, am I white ally and was writing upon my personal experience of a white person living in this country. I can’t relate to the experience of any person of color, and that’s the point of my article. If I’m going to be an ally to undocumented people or any other group, I need to consult with those who are directly affected. And most of the folks I have seen putting these pink stickers on their licenses have been white (again, just my personal experience), which makes your point about how white people created these systems of oppression all the more important when they are often using these privileges they have to decide how people should or should not react to struggles that are not theirs.
March 12, 2013 at 11:21 pm
Tarheel
Thank you for acknowledging that ally does not equal white. That’s the underlying assumption of this article. When I read your statement that clergy and advocates are co-opting a struggle that isn’t theirs, coupled with the statement that the allies doing this co-opting aren’t likely to be asked to show ID or targeted in a checkpoint, I got the impression these allies are all white. I know many non-Latino people of color who have been targeted in NC, stopped at checkpoints, and would be great allies because they do know what racial profiling is like. Saying no one knows what its like and anyone who tries is making a lame attempt is tantamount to painting all allies with the same brush IMO breaks down potential bonds of strength, shuts down any potential conversation, and doesn’t create solidarity any more effectively than pink tape for the sake of pink tape.
March 13, 2013 at 9:53 am
Amy Fischer
If your read the article and click on the embedded links, you’ll notice that I am speaking on the specific act of putting pink tape on the licenses. The congregations mentioned in the article and the folks from the advocacy orgs that are encouraging allies to take this action are, in fact, predominately white. My goal was not to name names (individuals or organizations) with this article, but that is the reality of the situation. I am not talking about allies and people across the state of NC in general, but those that I have witnessed putting the pink tape on their licenses and those that are leading this effort are overwhelmingly white (or as I originally wrote, “for most of the folks that I have seen taping their licenses in solidarity”.) For example, I haven’t seen any news articles about the church off of Rogers Road in Chapel Hill that you mentioned in other comments encouraging their congregation to put the tape on their license. Maybe that’s another issue, the diversity of who is voicing their concern in the media. Please email me at amywfischer@gmail.com so that the NC DREAM Team can reach out to these congregations and organizations of color so we can advise them to how to better stand in solidarity on March 25th than encouraging their groups and congregations to put tape on their licenses.
March 18, 2013 at 11:06 am
ricky
There are different ways of looking at this. I agree with your viewpoint for my personal actions, but I don’t think that what I choose to do or not do for myself is necessary the the prescribed way for all allies of a particular cause. We all have our own ways of showing support and putting the pink stripes on licenses does not mean those folks won’t take further action. I think the way you frame this is good in that it describes your own beliefs of why you would take a particular path of action. I just think that we all should be careful that we are not overcritical of folks who are generally in support but choose a path of action that we do not necessarily agree with.
I think that for folks that do put the tape on their license, it might not be a publicly visible mark of support, but it is something that they would look at everyday when they look in their pockets/purses/wallets. And I think that is more important than being ostentatious about their support, but that they themselves have a reminder that they look at. So while I won’t do it myself, I think it could be a good way for folks to keep others in mind. And especially for those who may not have immersed themselves yet with more active allies and activists, the relatively internal reminder (and I say internal because like you said, most folks don’t take the license out often) might serve as a spark for more active engagement.