They're Already Coming For Thee
First they came for the trans women
And you didn’t speak out
Because, they’re just asking questions, they want trans people and women safe
Then they came for the sex workers
And you didn’t speak out
Because, they’re being exploited against their will, no matter what they say for themselves
Then they came for the immigrants
And you didn’t speak out
Because those are American jobs, you deserve them, well, someone else does, they sound hard
I hope you see a happier ending than I do, but then, I am a trans woman
I first shared this poem in my post announcing I was ending my hiatus from steaming, writing, and just generally creating. I hoped it would be able to stand alone in that post, but I think I need to reiterate it, scream it from the fucking roof tops.
In truth, I hate First They Came. It centers the experience of those who watched others systematically destroyed before them. It positions those who watch the suffering of others as indifferent. If you choose to do nothing while others suffer, you are not neutral, you are not passive, you are actively supporting those deaths. You are in fact responsible for the suffering of those who were tortured before you because you prioritized your own calm status quo over their lives.
Martin Niemöller was a Nazi. His poem centers the perspective of collaborators who truly though “I’m one of the good ones, they won’t come for me.”
First They Came is written not from the perspective of a Jew, a Socialist, or a member of a union, but of someone who watch those people slaughtered and did nothing not because they were indifferent, but because the speaker felt they deserved it. Even the final line feels no remorse for the suffering of others, but only that no one will come to save the speaker.
And never forget who Niemöller didn’t include. The Nazi’s first victims, the ones whom the allies “freed” and immediately re-imprisoned. The queers and the trannies. Because he knew his audience agreed with those deaths, as he did.
Go read my piece on the Lemkin Institute from yesterday to see proof. Even those who claim to stand for the downtrodden don’t. They want to appear to do so. To appear righteous while simultaneously getting to smack down the exact same minorities they claim to speak for.
Neutrality, ignorance, and indifference in the face of another people’s strife is not value neutral. It is willing collaboration with those doing harm.
Fix your heart or die — David Lynch, Twin Peaks
