I have a tendency to be quite political and closely follow what’s going on in our world - especially when it relates to injustice of some kind and skin color. There has been a lot of news surrounding xenophobia, racial profiling, blaming of immigrants for various unfounded things, a growing nationalist trend, etc. Often my work is related to current issues such as these.
Jovani represents why the color of a person’s skin is irrelevant. He is 1/4 Black, 1/4 Italian, 1/4 Mexican and 1/4 Russian. He is also an immigrant, but he is more light skinned than most people with Black, Italian or Mexican heritage, and is not “recognized as an immigrant” and passes as white. He has never encountered any racial profiling or xenophobia. This is exactly why profiling someone, because of the color of their skin, is total nonsense and quite frankly, reprehensible in this day and age.
I personally have experienced racial profiling, post 911, because I am part Turkish and used to tan very dark, so when I would travel, I would often be pulled aside when re-entering the US, as they assumed I was a “person of concern.” That entailed detainment, pat-downs, etc. It was no fun, makes you feel as though you are NOT equal to other Americans and the fact that this practice continues is unacceptable. Those who bully, degrade, spout hate speech, etc. towards people of color, for any reason, have no place in today’s society and we need to begin to call out and condemn those who enable and elevate this ANTI-American sentiment.