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President's Letters

President's Letter: "We all must stand with Minnesota"

Dear Friends, 

Thousands of masked, armed officers hunt for people of color in indiscriminate neighborhood sweeps, detaining them with no due process. Peaceful protestors are assaulted and sprayed with toxic chemicals by federal agents. And a loving mother of three, Renee Good, is killed despite posing no threat. These are not scenes from our dark past or from another country — they are a reality for our neighbors, colleagues, and family members in Minnesota. A federal judge enjoined some of the worst violations of protestors’ rights, but the response of federal officials to the ruling promised more of the same.

These are atrocities. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton wrote about an “‘atrocity-producing situation’— one so structured, psychologically and militarily, that ordinary people, men or women no better or worse than you or I, can regularly commit atrocities.” He argued that though individuals should be held accountable for their actions, the responsibility for the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib or the massacre of civilians at My Lai during the Vietnam War lay with commanders and politicians. This administration’s relentless campaign of racist dehumanization, lying, and fear-mongering together with instructions to disregard basic norms and to view those who disagree with you as “the enemy” create an environment that enables atrocities. “To resist such intense group pressure, an unusual combination of conscience and courage is required,” Lifton wrote.

These atrocities create an imperative for every person and every institution: we all must stand with Minnesota. In response to the abuses, the people of Minnesota have created a solidarity-producing situation. Thousands of everyday people, leaders of faith, workers, and civic leaders are standing up peacefully for themselves, their neighbors and all of our freedoms. Local organizations — grassroots community organizing groups, mutual aid networks, churches, and unions — are the backbone of these patriotic actions. We must follow their example. 

Unfortunately, this country has a long history of racial terror, perpetrated by the state, private groups, or both. But we also have a proud tradition of organizing that has given us the freedoms we are at risk of losing today. That tradition is being revived in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Memphis, New Orleans, and now in extraordinary fashion in Minnesota. 

My colleague Daniel Altschuler and another political scientist, Javier Corrales, wrote a prescient piece in The Guardian in November arguing that based on the experience with authoritarian regimes around the world, we should prepare for escalating repression in the U.S. And so the choice comes to all of us. Will we find a “combination of conscience and courage?” Will we prevent these atrocities from being normalized? Will we speak up? 

At Freedom Together, we are proud to stand with the people of Minnesota, and we encourage every person and institution to do the same.

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