Who Taught You to Fear Us?

No one is born fearing immigrants.

A child doesn’t hear an accent and assume danger.
A toddler doesn’t care where another kid’s parents were born.
A baby doesn’t see a different skin color and think “outsider.”

Fear is learned.

So who taught you to fear us?

Was it the headlines that only mention immigration when there’s a crime?
The politicians who needed a scapegoat when the economy failed?
The history books that called some people pioneers and others invaders?

Or was it something smaller?
A neighbor’s warning to “lock the doors” in certain parts of town.
A TV show where the villain always had a foreign name.
A joke from a relative, dismissed as “just the way they grew up.”

Fear doesn’t always come with a speech or a slogan.
Sometimes, it seeps in quietly—until it feels like the truth.

But if fear is learned—

Then maybe it can be unlearned.