Nation of Immigrants: A New York Photo Story

Photographer Olivia Paschkes: "At Battery Park on Sunday January 29, many New Yorkers showed up to stand with their brothers and sisters targeted by the executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.

I started to notice all those people who weren't participating in the protest, but watching from a distance. They were overwhelmingly immigrants and persons of colour – serving pizza slices to scrums of protesters, unpacking inventory in delis for the week ahead, or working in souvenir stores selling the red, white and blue paraphernalia of a country that only half-recognizes their contributions."

"American" is continuing to support and sell the flag of a country that wants to send you back to where you came from.

As chef Anthony Bourdain once put it: "People love to claim that 'Mexicans are stealing our jobs.' As two decades as a chef and employer, I never had one American kid walk in my door and apply for a dishwashing job, a porter's position, or even a job as a prep cook... Any chef will tell you, our entire service economy would collapse overnight without Mexican workers."

In case y'all forgot!

Immigrants DO make America great, but when we say "We are a nation of immigrants", we must also keep in mind that slavery was NOT immigration, and neither was it when white Europeans came here at the cost of entire indigenous populations.

Well, did she?!

Where indeed?

Don't drink the Orange Koolaid. Many of the same people who voted for "closing our borders" are those who do Taco Tuesdays at their local family-owned Mexican joint, whose favourite baseball teams are made up of mostly Dominican players, who get manipedis at Korean nail salons, or order breakfast sandwiches every morning from someone they don't know where they come from except it's in the "Middle East." 

"We are a nation of immigrants" – at the intersection of Little Italy and Chinatown.

On my way home from the march, I took a detour through Chinatown. I came across a takeout place that served both Mexican and Chinese food, and thought, how American…

Peace and love, guys.