Tapestry

I’ve been thinking a lot about our complicated histories, both the nation’s and personal. America was built on back-breaking and unrelenting labor of persons of color. But there are also the stories of the people who fought for freedom and justice.

My family history includes a witch accuser, soldiers in the Continental Army, enslavers, thankfully more Union soldiers than confederate, and people who fled persecution in the late 1800s to build a life here.

Today, the news is unrelenting. Tear gas sprayed indiscriminately at families peacefully protesting. Murder by state actors. Elementary school children running. Vaccines not approved. Warehouses being bought. 

They want us scared. But the past paves the way: throughout U.S. history, people have stepped up to protect targets of injustice.

The New York City white dressmakers who went on strike in 1931 when their boss fired a Black coworker were probably scared they would also lose their jobs. They refused to work anyway. One day later, their colleague was reinstated.

Today, the people in Portland, LA, Minneapolis, Chicago, and elsewhere who protect their Black and brown neighbors and friends are probably scared. They still stand for justice. 

The picketers who encircled the White House in 1928 to protest American military occupation of Nicaragua likely knew arrest would follow. And 100 were arrested.

The people who follow and observe ICE as it unlawfully assaults people with impunity persist even though the regime is threatening their First Amendment rights.

In 1933, white dressmakers blocked the arrest of a Black coworker. Six were arrested.

The regime wants us to hide, but we cannot afford to. Humanity requires us to protect those they seek to destroy, even though some of us will be harmed along the way. People who value true freedom—not the specter of it the tech broligarchs are selling—must fight.

The more of us who do, the less we will be afraid.

 Sources:

Tim Dickenson, BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/timdickinson.bsky.social/post/3mdrargvrvc2c), 31 January 2026 (“Today I saw ICE gas little white kids in the streets of Portland with chemical weapons. Imagine what they're doing to brown and black kids in the detention camps.”).

Cameron Stevenson, “MAP: All 23 industrial warehouses ICE wants to turn into detention ‘death camps,’” Courier (https://couriernewsroom.com/news/map-ice-detention-warehouse/), 10 February 2026.

“Dressmakers Strike; Block Firing of Negro,” Daily Worker (Chicago, Ill.), 19 December 1931, p. 1, col. 1; imaged, OldNews (www.oldnews.com).

“Arrest 100 at White House,” The Boston (Massachusetts) Post, 15 April 1928, p. 15, col. 7; imaged, OldNews (www.oldnews.com).

Ted Hesson, Kristina Cooke and Brad Heath, “ICE is cracking down on people who follow them in their cars,” Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ice-is-cracking-down-people-who-follow-them-their-cars-2026-02-10/), 10 February 2026.

 “6 Arrested Forcing Cops to Turn Loose Negro Woman Picket,” Daily Worker, 18 January 1933, p. 1, col. 5; imaged, OldNews (www.oldnews.com).