Recognizing Our Shared Humanity After Renee Good's Death
I have looked at a lot of pictures of Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on Wednesday in Minneapolis, MN. Instead of watching graphic videos of horrifically violent acts, I try to focus on the human; it’s become a practice of mine, living in a country with way too many horrifically violent acts. It's how I stay aware and sensitive while trying to minimize the traumatic impact.
So, I looked at lots of pictures of Renee Nicole Good. And what I noticed first is that she doesn’t look much like me.
She has blond hair, whereas mine is black.
She has blue eyes, whereas mine are brown.
Her hair is straight, whereas mine is curly.
Her skin is white, and mine is brown.
In reviewing photo after photo of her, that felt new. Usually, when someone is killed by ICE or other federal immigration-related law enforcement officials, they look like me: brown hair, brown eyes, brown skin. In fact, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, Marimar Martinez, and Keith Porter, all of whom were shot or killed by ICE officials in the past four months, all looked like me. Do we know their names? Did we look at their pictures?
I am devastated by the murder of Renee Good.
I am devastated by the murders of Silverio, Marimar, and Keith.
May their memories be for a blessing—each and every one of them, each and every one of the worlds that they were.
And may this be a moment to remember that it should not require us to see someone who looks like us to feel that rage, to feel that devastation, to recognize that they are a whole life: a whole world.
This piece was written as part of JWA’s Pomegranate Writing Fellowship for Jewish Women of Color.
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