Limit(ed)/ing movement

when we speak about migration and movement, about mobility, about controlling bodies, we are also speaking about money and of course race; or race and of course money. a friend tells me today that she can only leave Germany 21 days a year, on account of receiving government assistance. friends from Mexico who save all their funds to visit Europe get deported upon arrival because immigration guesses they don’t have enough money to be here. asylum seekers escaping falling bombs are forced to pay thousands to smugglers and risk their lives through an asinine obstacle course, when, with another passport, they could book an easy-jet flight. Black and Brown bodies walking the streets are stopped and questioned, asked for identification. Non-white bodies traveling in Europe are pulled off trains, off buses. The United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but houses about 20% of the world’s prisoners–the vast majority, around 95% are going to get out of prison at some point–and have to reintegrate–but there is next to no restorative justice. When asked about race relations in the United States, both Clinton and Trump immediately talk about policing, managing bodies, imprisoned bodies. Limit(ed)/ing movement. Inside those prisons, bodies are enslaved to work asinine jobs for companies that those of us on the outside support with our $€$€. And yet those of us with even shreds of our own mobility, “freedom of movement,” are still so concerned with our own privacy, our own private property, our own mobility. im a ball of rage and frustration. and i know so are so many others.