I'm Not Political

Content: politics, death, murder, and oppression

I’m pissed.

I’m furious.

First, for the reality of our sociopolitical world.

Second, that I have to even write this.

Today’s essay was supposed to be a eulogy for my cat of 18 years and 8 months. Yes, my cat. But, she was my heart cat, whom I have had since I was still a teenager. She grew to love my children, slump her body over our arms and legs, and fought until the end.

And I wanted to honor her today. Some folks may think she’s “just” a cat, but she taught me many things, showed me love, and was one of my closest companions through moves and milestones.

My sweet Amora cuddling with my hand

But I can’t do that today. When the weight of the world is heavy on us all, it didn’t sit well with me to ignore the realities of today. Of yesterday. Of many, many years of sociopolitical conditions that have paved the way for now.

No, instead, I need to talk about our existence. Our humanity. For fuck’s sake.

So often, as a sociologist, I’m met with some variation of, “I’m not political.” Or, “I don’t like politics.”

But, existence is political.

I exist because of political forces beyond my control, and before I was even a thought. My very existence is the result of U.S. Imperialism, the Korean War, and occupation. My grandparents were not able to marry because of anti-miscegenation laws. I have other identities that are intricately tied to who I am and cannot be teased apart from my being, thus making my being a political body.

Politics (as a singular concept for grammatical purposes here) extends far beyond the scope of what we often know as Republican and Democrat in the United States. Politics is the way in which your landlord tries to figure out how to evict you. Politics allows you to have health insurance (or not). Politics determines how long the advertisements are on your favorite platform or what your algorithm feed shows you. Policies, laws, and shareholders help determine and dictate what it is we consume and how we navigate the world. Politics is the food we eat, the exercises we choose, and the access to the sports we play. The Missions we see through California remind us of colonizers’ violence and the removal of Indigenous cultures and languages forcibly and horrifically. And, don’t forget when you mow the lawn on Tuesdays, that is deeply tied to the origins of socioeconomic status, class, mobility, race, and the good old American Dream.

The Governor’s Mansion with its perfectly manicured lawn (photo I took in Springfield, IL in 2024)

With that said, life is political. The way we interact is influenced by institutions that guide our lives, our taxes, and our education. Politics influences who we are and how we view the world.

And politics are perpetually in our face. Those who can ignore are those who have the least to lose, but let me be very clear: while this is true, those of us who are not in the wealthy, powerful class can, and often do, lose everything. We are not protected, and so long as rights are being infringed, so long as anybody is still held down by the chains of oppression, none of us are free, none have liberation, and any one of us is vulnerable to the abuse of power that we are witnessing.

As I said, I wanted to write a eulogy for my cat, but instead, government-sanctioned murder happened yet again when Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a federal government agent. He was 37 years old. The same age that I am right now. The same age as Renee Good. I will be celebrating my birthday within the next two weeks; meanwhile, their families are planning their funerals.

Multiple videos have surfaced, evidence that he was not armed when he was murdered. In fact, there is video footage of presumably an agent who takes Pretti’s gun, which he was legally allowed to have per the 2nd amendment and ownership of a permit, for which, as of now, there is enough assumption made that Pretti did have a permit to maintain open carry.

Stories have poured out that Pretti was a nurse, an upstanding citizen, and more. And while highlighting a person’s life is important to honor them, it’s also important to note that no human deserved the death he experienced, regardless of their background. This comes weeks after Renee Good’s murder, calling attention to her poetry and her good works for the community. And Renee’s murder is shortly after the murder of Keith Porter, executed by an off-duty ICE agent (who, mind you, has been accused of child abuse). Though the right is trying to spin both stories, justifying the executions that occurred in the streets that we have witnessed through media and recordings.

A quote that is circulating is that by George Orwell in his book 1984, where he writes, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” And, there are two quotes by Paulo Freire in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed that resonate with me after having read it several times. The first is, “The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.” Followed by, “The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors." (Of course, many folks would probably be drawn to this one, especially with the nature of my post: “Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

Pedagogy of the Oppressed, in my car, circa 2021

But, I want to think about the context of what we are witnessing with ICE-related violence.

First, the George Orwell quote. We are told, time and time again, that the violence we are witnessing is allowable, legal, and justified. Government-supported, sanctioned, funded execution in the streets is somehow justified, arguing that constitutional rights, the right have so adamantly promoted (2nd amendment), are no longer applicable. We are told, time and time again, that the videos we see are in fact something else, resulting in severe harm to the federal agents, our very own secret police, designed to challenge and push against ideological differences, and in this case, protestors.

Next, with Paulo Freire’s work, he highlights two major things we are witnessing in his work. First, we are seeing that any acts of community organizing are squashed, demonized, and considered a threat to the United States. This is not community support, but rather individualistic mentalities and how certain leaders, who uphold their ideological agenda of domination and control, are instead the focus. Meanwhile, we see working class folks joining ICE, enticed by power, control, and sign-on bonuses, good pay, and student loan payments, desiring to be like the oppressors, those in power, the wealthy and in control, that they are fully embracing the role, not aiming for liberation or freedom of all, and not even themselves, but instead so desperate to be like those in power.

And they never will be.

The reality is that those in power, in a fascist regime, will turn on anybody, and quickly. And in sociology, conflict theory sums this up nicely, in that it explains that those in power will do anything, through any means necessary, to maintain their power. While it looks at the struggle over resources, in this case, it is rights, power, and autonomy, humanity. And in some cases, depending on the conflict theorist, also explains that revolution is inevitable, with the goal being a redistribution of wealth and resources.

The struggle for rights has never ended, and it cannot be seen as a simple destination. It is an ongoing fight. And we need to remember that life is political, our very existence is political. Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti died because of political forces. BIPOC, disabled, queer, and other minoritized folks have been facing this long before ICE, and this behavior is an embedded component of the fabric of this country. This administration is the result of decades, centuries, of politics and practices that legitimized some and ostracized many. And to pretend this isn’t a deeply ingrained element of the United States is to do a disservice to those who have died, fought, and survived, pushing forward activism and propelling change.

My daughter at a march in 2018.

Life is political, and some may be able to ignore that reality, yet only temporarily. The rights we have are fragile within that life and are political by nature. To pretend this is not political, to pretend we are not political, is ignorance, naivety, and creates the conditions that allow for the oppression of all. And we cannot keep being silent; we must confront the conditions that are in our faces, that are killing our community, the people we interact with, who take care of us, who we serve lattes to, with whom we share bread. Any one of us can be harmed, the politics of power stripping us of our humanity. And minoritized folks have been saying this for ages, a reminder, endlessly, yet so many, especially those who have felt protected by people in power, able-bodied, cis, straight, white folks, even when those in power never truly had their best interests in mind, have glossed over this, ignoring it, but it was never wrong. And still, some continue to ignore it.

And this can be depressing, deflating, defeating. But, I want to leave with yet one more quote by Angela Davis, who said, “No movement is possible without hope.” We may be overwhelmed, exhausted, and unsure of what to do next. But we must maintain hope in addition to speaking up. Because, like life, where everything is political, so is hope.

And right now, hope is a very political and critical tool of resistance that we cling to like our lives depend on it, because they do.