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In the United States, power often comes down to documentation. For centuries, those in power have used documents to police freedom. From the plantation to the border, a lack of paperwork has always meant danger for Black and Brown people. America has a paper trail of oppression.
During slavery, Black people couldn’t move without permission. Slaveholders forced enslaved Africans to carry written passes. These papers allowed short-term travel, often for errands or labor. Without a pass, an enslaved person faced arrest, beatings, or death.
These passes were not just about travel. They were about control, reminding enslaved people that their freedom could be taken at any time. They showed White society who had power and who did not.
The Modern-Day Pass
Today, undocumented immigrants face similar scrutiny. A mother walking her child to school can be stopped. Without state ID or legal papers, she can be detained and deported. Her child may end up in foster care or sent across borders alone. All because she lacks the right documents.
The similarities are clear. Both systems punish people for who they are, not for what they’ve done. Both enforce control through surveillance and fear. In both cases, your ability to survive depends on papers that others decide you deserve.
This pattern is not new. After slavery ended, America created new forms of control. The Black Codes, vagrancy laws, and later Jim Crow required documentation and restricted movement. Chinese immigrants faced similar restrictions under the Chinese Exclusion Act. They had to carry certificates proving their right to be in the country.
These laws turned identity into a crime. They forced people to carry proof that they belonged. If they failed, they suffered.
Paper as a Tool of Racial Control
ICE and immigration laws now play a similar role. Black and Brown immigrants live under constant threat. They must prove their right to be here every day. A missing document can cost them their job, their home, or their family.
This is not just bureaucracy. It’s racial control. These systems don’t protect public safety—they protect White supremacy. They define belonging by paper, and those papers are hardest to get for people of color.
Some claim this is just the law. But laws once protected slavery. Laws forced Japanese families into internment camps. Laws took children from asylum-seeking parents. Legality doesn’t always equal justice.
We must reject systems that criminalize people for lacking documents. We must fight policies that break up families and destroy lives in the name of order. Programs that provide local IDs or sanctuary protections help, but we need deeper change. We must rethink how this country defines citizenship, freedom, and dignity.
Folling the Paper Trail — History Repeats
I speak as a Black man who sees the pattern. My ancestors were told they couldn’t walk free without permission. Today, Brown families face the same fear. The system has changed, but the logic remains.
Documentation should not decide who gets to live in peace. Until we change that, America will keep finding new ways to criminalize the same people.
At The Black Wall Street Times, we don’t just connect the past to the present—we expose the systems that still oppress our people.
When policies echo the logic of slavery and immigration raids tear families apart, we trace the pattern. We shine light on the paper trail of control that runs through American history and still targets Black and Brown lives today.
But telling these truths takes resources. And we can’t do it without you.
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