The Baby We Keep Being Asked to Surrender
“Citizenship is not conferred by birth alone, but by fidelity to the principles of freedom and justice.” Frederick Douglass
There is a story in the Bible about Solomon, the son of David, who became king of Israel after David’s death. He was the son of Bathsheba. Two women once brought a baby before Solomon, each claiming to be the mother. One woman said the other had rolled over her child during the night, killed it, and secretly took the living baby. Solomon could not know the truth, so he proposed a test. “Let’s cut the baby in half.”
The true mother immediately cried out, “No. Give her the baby. Let her have it.”
Solomon knew then who the real mother was, because she was willing to sacrifice her own love in order to save the child.
I reference this story because it mirrors something Frederick Douglass experienced. After the Dred Scott decision, when the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, descendants of enslaved Africans, could never be citizens, Douglass became disheartened. Black Americans had built the nation, fought in its wars, and sacrificed for it, yet were told they did not belong. He even considered leaving the United States, exploring places like Haiti as a potential homeland. In a sense, he was willing to give up the baby, to give up America, so that the people might survive.
Then came the firing on Fort Sumter and the beginning of the Civil War. At that moment, Douglass changed course. African Americans would fight for the nation they had built. They would defend it. They would claim it. They would not abandon the land their ancestors had watered with sweat, blood, and tears.
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
That choice, to stay, to fight, to build, defines our history.
When we think about the history of African Americans, the sacrifices are undeniable. We have given this nation blood, sweat, and tears. We have been enslaved, raped, lynched, murdered, incarcerated, discriminated against, and systematically excluded, yet we still love this land. We claim it as our own even when others insist we do not belong. Our roots are here. We have nowhere else to go.
And yet today, some try to tell us our story is the same as the immigrant story. It is not.
Frederick Douglass was willing to give up the baby rather than destroy what belonged to others. Today, what we see is different. Illegal immigrants, and in some cases legal immigrants, arrive with a philosophy that openly despises the West, refuses to assimilate, and disparages America’s institutions. They do not love this nation, yet we are constantly told to center their plight as if it mirrors ours.
Illegal immigrants step over those waiting in line for legal citizenship, enter communities already struggling, and draw heavily from housing, education, and healthcare, resources built through generations of Black labor and sacrifice. Some members of Congress even claim that immigrants built this nation, effectively erasing the foundational role of African American slaves.
The same pattern appears in the workforce. Immigrants are favored for certain jobs while Black men are incarcerated, overlooked, or displaced. In exchange for political power and votes, Black Americans are pushed aside, all while politicians demand the Black vote and act as if they are doing us a favor.
What is being presented as solidarity is, in reality, the erasure of Black Americans from their own history and struggle.
Now today, I am in Minnesota again. Another man, a white man, lost his life during a confrontation with ICE agents. From the videos available, it does not appear that he was reaching for a weapon. His hands were raised, as if to signal that he was not interested in violence. However, it appears he may have pushed one of the officers during the confrontation. That action escalated the situation, and tragically, he lost his life.
I feel genuine sorrow for this man. This did not have to happen.
I do not believe Border Patrol or ICE agents are without fault, and I am not convinced their response was appropriate. At the very least, these officers should be reprimanded. But I place much of the blame on those who continually stoke these flames, those who encourage confrontation without responsibility.
Protesters are increasingly putting themselves in volatile situations where they jeopardize their own lives. The state bears responsibility here as well. There should have been clear boundaries to ensure protesters did not impede officers or approach them in ways that invite escalation. Instead, disorder was allowed to grow unchecked.
Then there are the scams.
A Black family claimed they were returning from a basketball game with their children when ICE agents allegedly deployed gas beneath their car, causing the vehicle to fill with gas and nearly killing their infant child. The mother appeared on CNN and other platforms, describing how she promised her child that she would breathe for him to save his life. The family received nearly two hundred thousand dollars through GoFundMe.
It later emerged that this story was not true.
The parents were not coming from a basketball game. They were protesters who had taken their children to a protest rally. When things escalated and federal agents deployed gas, their vehicle happened to be in the path of that deployment. Videos later surfaced showing both parents actively participating in the protest. They had lied about their circumstances and used the situation to gain media attention and financial support.
Why would parents bring their children into a volatile protest environment? Why would they use their own children to draw sympathy and attention? It is sickening how people exploit situations for notoriety and money, even at the expense of their own children’s safety.
Another difference between today’s protesters and those of the civil rights era is that many of today’s protesters are paid. During the civil rights movement, protesters were not paid, and the causes were fundamentally different. We were defending the rights of American citizens who were being mistreated, oppressed, marginalized, and dehumanized.
Many African Americans were trying to escape the United States, fleeing slavery, violence, and Jim Crow, going to places like Canada. Immigrants today are coming here voluntarily. They want to be here. They want access to the system.
By the 1950s, under Jim Crow, Black Americans were trying to survive in a country filled with people angry about losing the Civil War and resentful of Black progress. On every side, we defended ourselves against violence and attacks. Many of those attacks came from white Democrats. Every major law passed in favor of African Americans was backed by Republicans, not Democrats.
Today, protesters aligned with Democrat policies attack ICE agents and federal officers while believing they are above the law. This is largely white on white protest activity. Black participation is minimal, with few exceptions. The contrast is stark. Black protesters face swift consequences, while some white protesters openly act out with little accountability, even inside churches, spreading hateful messages.
Another actor in all of this is the media. They sit back waiting for chaos, hungry for spectacle. Networks benefit from unrest because it produces content. Without chaos, what would they cover? Without the visceral hatred of Donald Trump, what would dominate their headlines? Disorder keeps the cameras rolling.
This week, I took my grandchildren to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. I wanted them to see where we started, from slavery to the Civil War, from secret churches to the Civil Rights Movement, from surviving drugs and violence meant to destroy our communities. I wanted them to understand that we are a strong, proud people who do not live off anyone. We work. We build. We survive. We thrive. We are Americans.
I wanted them to see how much we have given this nation and how our story is now being hidden, overtaken, and misused by people who do not love this country, do not know our history, and cannot speak for us. Resources flow to immigrant communities while our own struggle. Politicians posture while African American owned businesses receive little support. We see protests for illegal immigrants, even for people who have committed serious crimes, while the act of crossing the border illegally is reframed as not being criminal at all.
This framing distorts the truth and obscures history. American Blacks built this nation through sacrifice that cannot be equated or reassigned, and it is our responsibility to remember that legacy, preserve it, and teach it to the next generation.
