Dear friends,
I find the pictures I’ve shared below offensive. But instead of grabbing your attention before I write about them, I’m putting all my commentary up front. This is the opposite of “stitch incoming,” which, according to wikihow, means to assure viewers that the confusing or offending video posted will be followed by commentary after the stitched (edited) content.
It can also be shorthand for, “I’m going to poke fun at this, just hang on!”
I hope you know that Refuge Coffee is a responsive nonprofit, not a reactionary one. The whole reason for “stitch incoming” is to garner a reaction, not necessarily a thoughtful response. Personally, I have moments of reaction that I think are healthy and necessary, but these reactions are not my best moments, nor are they the foundation for our work.
Sure, I savored a reactionary moment in the small coastal town where our engagement team went for a retreat. I almost walked into the store on the quaint main street with the signs below posted in their front window (and 18 more just like them). Not that I was in any danger, but I couldn’t imagine walking in with any of my refugee or immigrant friends.
My shock that this kind of un-welcome exists here in our country aside, I quickly realized that that front window was not an invitation to poke fun or form my own, equally audacious fighting words. It was simply a reminder that the work of Refuge Coffee is to gather and support living proof that welcome for refugees and immigrants is wise, good, and beautiful.
When we hire, train, and embrace refugees, when we host cultural events, when we celebrate the achievements of our immigrant employees, when we host markets where refugee-owned businesses are given opportunities to shine, we are looking for—and easily finding—this living proof.
In a New York Times op-ed piece, the mayor of Minneapolis said in response to the ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good:
By supporting immigrant-owned small businesses, our city has become living proof that immigrants make our city and our nation stronger… The best way to convince the country that welcoming and lifting up immigrants is good for its communities is by proving it in our own cities.
Living proof that welcome works is the best defense against un-welcome.
Thankfully,
Kitti
P.S. – Thank you for indulging me in that first paragraph. I get a kick out of introducing current slang or new tech to people who are younger than me (which is just about everybody these days!). Maybe it’s an unhealthy one-upmanship, but I think it’s just fun. In person, I’ve been known to embarrass myself with false knowledge, as in, “Kiki, that’s not at all what 6/7 means,” delivered with a slight eye roll and a longsuffering hug. But, hey, age is a wonderful get out of jail free card.
