minhyeon-is-drawing

[minhyeon-is-drawing]

Road 96 makes me cry every time I so much as think about it.

You’re 14. A child. You are trying to escape your country. The entire world is against you. You meet a boy, and it’s brief, and once you leave him you know you’ll never see him again. You don’t make it.

A different kid. 16 this time. Wants to escape the country. Everyone is against you. You meet a lady who has a son. You don’t know it, but a different teenager not too long ago was riding down this same road with this lady’s son. She helps you. You meet a boy named Max while at a gas station. He’s in the same boat as you. He gets taken away. You never see him again. There are so many like you.

A different kid. 15. A trucker who would make a great father takes you as far as he can. He tells you about how the love of his life died years ago along the way. This road has been traveled by so many children your age. Everyone older than you is sad. Everyone your age is furious.

A different kid. You pass by a tiny grave by the side of the road. The person who died was 14. You don’t have enough money to sleep anywhere but outside. It’s so lonely but the stars are so bright.

A different kid. You’re in a taxi and when you try to leave the driver won’t unlock the doors. While begging for your life you accidentally say the wrong thing. You don’t make it.

A different kid. You’re at a campground full of runaways just like you and it’s the first night in weeks where you don’t feel homesick. Another runaway tells you all about her plans. You play her trombone. In the morning she is gone and you never see her again.

A different kid. You call your parents from a pay phone. They’re in tears and beg you to come back.

A different kid. You call your parents. They support what you’re doing but they talk in code because they’re being watched.

A different kid. You see your own wanted poster one day and it makes you wonder about the kind of people who have no problem with arresting a kid just for wanting a better life.

A different kid. You reach the border. There’s a girl with a trombone. You try to cross the border together. Two kids go in. Only one comes out.

A different kid. It’s all over the news that another runaway just like you was killed while trying to cross the border. You’re terrified.

A different kid. You try to cross the border but are caught. You are put in a cell with a boy named Max. He tells you about a kid he met while at a gas station before he was arrested. You both silently hope the other runaway made it out.

Everyone before you has had a hand in your story and you don’t even know it. You yourself will have a hand in the next runaway teen’s story and neither of you know it.

And the cycle will continue.

And continue.

And continue.

[minhyeon-is-drawing]

[id: a light yellow userbox with a pastel pink border, and pastel pink text that reads “this user loves road 96.” on the left is an image of the road 96 logo. /end id]

[minhyeon-is-drawing]

I need each and every person who sees this to pay attention to what is going on with the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The same SCOTUS that refered to tribal land as a territory of the state is about to hear a case that might overturn ICWA.

ICWA allows Alaska Natives and Native Americans control over the adoption and foster care placement of Native American and Alaska Children. In practice what this ensures is that if a Native American or Alaska Native child cannot be raised with their parents', the extended family will be given custody. If the extended family cannot care for the child, the child is placed with a family in their tribe or, barring that, with a family who is Native American or Alaska Native.

This act is important for two reasons:

For centuries, Native Americans and Alaska Natives were forcibly assimilated into White culture. From the 1800s to the late 1900s, children were taken from their families and either adopted out to White people or put in boarding schools. If parents refused, they were sometimes incarcerated, and they could lose custody of their other children. There are cases where tribes would hide their children and tell people who came that they had none...so the white people started showing up uannounced. The children sent to these schools were abused. Some were murdered. And survivors still live with the trauma. ICWA was passed to stop this...but not even 50 years after it being passed, it's at risk.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives are constitutionally guaranteed sovereignty. We all know the government picks and chooses when it wants to honor that, but Native Americans and Alaska Natives are supposed to have sovereignty. The idea that one country can step in and tell sovereign tribes and nations that they are not allowed to control the placement of their own children should be absurd. The U.S. doesn't tell Britain what to do with their foster care system...but the SCOTUS knows that Native Americans and Alaska Natives don't have an army or navy like Britain does. Because of this the SCOTUS believes it has the right to violate years of precedent and treaties. It knows that it will be protected no matter what it decides.

So I'm asking people to keep an eye on ICWA. I'm asking them to boost the signal. And I'm asking them to protest if it falls.

[minhyeon-is-drawing]

[minhyeon-is-drawing]

[minhyeon-is-drawing]

[minhyeon-is-drawing]

“My eyes see the unknown colors and beauty, something you failed to see.”

: ̗̀➛ min-hyeon ‘min’ (旼賢)   ✾ minor   ✾ korean american   ✾ he/she/they

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AN: My art would consist of sensitive topics such as vent, refrence to irl politics, eyestrain, suggestive and gore/body horror. please be careful when engaging with my content.