I visited Sugar Land this weekend and it made me reflect on my childhood immersed in diverse cultures. What happened, man?

Hello, friend! Yesterday, we took Mazzy, the Australian Shepherd mix, to a dog park located in the nearby town of Sugar Land. Not just a clever name, this is where you can still find the now-dilapidated home site of Imperial Sugar. What it calls to mind is something profoundly American: capitalism, imperialism, sugar plantations, and urban decay. I suppose you can read into my political opinions based on that interpretation. In a great twist of irony, though, the town has a huge minority population, heavily non-Christian, which I’m sure has the original Imperial folks rolling in their graves.

Coming from Dallas, a massive mixing pot of cultures, I grew up absolutely immersed in culture. I met kids with families originating in countries from all over the world: Russia, Nigeria, Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan, Serbia, China, Mexico, Nicaragua, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, the list goes on. I lived directly next to Dominican folks, and on the other side of us a long list of renters cycled through: a Vietnamese family, Black folks, white folks, and a couple at one point that seemed to have a drug problem. Across the street lived a Jehovah’s Witness Hispanic family who lived next to a chronic alcoholic who was always getting arrested. A gay couple lived a few houses down from them.

I experienced some crazy shit growing up in my east Dallas neighborhood, but I would never trade it for some white-bred gated community, sanitized McMansion type of life. I’ve seen the types of people who too often come from those communities. I lived among them for several years while attending Southern Methodist University and living and working around the University Park / Highland Park area. Not quite as insufferable as the TCU frat bro dudes, but it’s close competition. There’s a reason I escaped from there to seek refuge among my more lefty friends up in Denton at University of North Texas which is where I ultimately completed my English degree.

It makes me sad to see our country rolling back decades of acceptance of our wide diversity, one of the hallmarks of what makes America beautiful. Imagine a whites-only New York City or Chicago or any other of a long list of American communities built to what they are today by a thriving immigrant community.

Shame on us for not putting in adequate work to make it easier for people to complete the process legally. Shame on us for ever dehumanizing another for seeking a better life here. Most of the ones campaigning the loudest against immigrants and pretending illegal immigrants are akin to violent criminals who need to be bounty hunted in the streets, schools, courtrooms, and parking lots of America are so deep in their white privilege that they won’t realize they’re hurting their own human brothers and sisters “in Christ” until it’s far too late to stop the momentum of the hate machine they’ve built. But I have hope still, dim though it may presently be. Peace and love to you.

— Jared Caraway​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​