Minneapolis is Now Ground Zero for Our Democracy
As the ICE occupation of Minneapolis unfolds, people of various ages and backgrounds are taking to the streets by the thousands in frigid weather to confront Federal agents who increasingly resemble the stormtroopers of previous authoritarian regimes. Those agents of the state at least showed their faces, while the lawless, uniformed agents of ICE have donned balaclavas both to arouse fear and to conceal identities (and responsibility).
The federal government’s war on Minnesota has created a spectacle of cruelty, affecting almost everyone in its major cities. School districts in the Minneapolis area report that “federal agents have been staging for their enforcement activities in school parking lots, and federal agents have detained and pepper sprayed people on school grounds.” Some districts have transitioned to online learning so that families can avoid confrontation with the masked, heavily armed agents. Having seen what’s happening, families are avoiding schools to keep their children safe. That’s a phrase that’s worth repeating: families are avoiding schools to keep their children safe.
Higher Education institutions in the Twin Cities are also taking steps to protect their students and employees from the Federal Agents. They too have offered online modalities where possible and provided transportation to groups fearful of encountering ICE. A colleague recently reported to me that whatever the horrors we are seeing on the news, the situation on the ground is worse. Those of us who have seen the videos of ICE executing people on the streets of Minneapolis should find that report chilling. Clergy are among those being arrested, children are being detained, and those who are bearing witness or protesting against this brutality are putting themselves at great risk. In the words of Gov Walz, agents of our own government “are sowing chaos and violence.”
Over the long tenure of my presidency of Wesleyan, I have periodically expressed outrage on this blog at violence in various parts of the world. And now it would be wrong to remain silent or feign neutrality about official violence meant to sow terror in the heartland of our country. Agents of the federal government, encouraged in their brutality by leaders at the highest level, seem to feel they are accountable to no one: not to the law, not to the Constitution, and certainly not to the people whose cities they are disrupting.
We must call this out for what it is: an assault on the fabric of our democracy. As I have written all-too-often, most recently in regard to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, education is an alternative to violence—and that is why we in higher education should not stay silent or “neutral” in the face of state sponsored brutality. We in education choose conversation as an alternative to violence. A safe-enough space for learning and meaning depends on that choice. Those who instead choose violence destroy the possibility of learning and meaning. Those of us who choose learning must call out violence, especially when it is sanctioned by our own government. This is part of the reason students and faculty from many schools in Minnesota have joined in the protests, often at considerable risk. Here at Wesleyan we have provided some guidelines for interaction with government agents based on existing law. The ACLU has also provided a card listing basic rights for those dealing with law enforcement.
As we begin a new semester, we should think of those trying to protect themselves and their neighbors in Minnesota. We should bear witness to the brutality and demand that our government protect our freedoms—not crush them with armed, masked men who think they can act with impunity. As people who have chosen learning, it’s the least we can do.
