Work is already a compartmentalized space for many people. Some places, by rote, have no politics or religion on their daily, invisible walls in existence for decades before Trump in power was even a thought. To have that in the workplace is normal. Mileage varies, no doubt, there is no 100% with people.

Sometimes you run into That Person who breaks the rules and makes the entire room break eye contact, bow head, and disengage to focus on work. There’s a reason most people don’t talk to them.

Where this is going to resonate most, now, is for people who do most of their in person talking to others at their job. For people who only encounter non white people at their job.

For me, work is the reprieve zone from it all. I have a job to do, my focus is on it. At least until we too have Immigration & Customs Enforcement in our halls.

Again, compartmentalization. Not just to do a better, more focused job (how much this matters also depends on what the job is, to you) but to engage in a mental moment of reprieve from thinking about our fallen republic.

There is a way you can quietly, unobtrusively support these people: just get to know them. If you get to know people, and by this I mean really listen, and take interest in what they say when they speak of whatever is important to them, later on all the little ways you can help will arise from that personal, direct knowledge over time, and between now and then maybe you've made a friend.

I'm not saying drape yourself over their cubicle wall and ask them detailed questions about their national traditions until you're glowing and they're weirded out; I'm saying get interested in who they are and what they have to say, and try to do it as naturally as you can. If you're not good at friendly small talk, at least know their names and greet them like you're glad to know them. In whatever way it means to you, be a friend so that when friends are needed, you're on their list.

Don't think that this casual ongoing personal interaction is powerless: rather, it is the source of our greatest strength. Community is what is saving Minneapolis, community is what is defeating ICE, community is what is getting people spontaneously out on the streets in freezing weather to prove that together we -- a whole lot of individual I's -- WE have no intention of quietly standing for this shit.

WE is the most powerful thing we have.

And it all starts right where you are now: wanting to help and having no idea how. But you asked. To me, that counts.

Getting to know people before the trouble starts is how you know the best ways to act in their behalf if they ever need it, in ways that do not trample their agency or cause humiliation or, god forbid, increase their dread. As a nation of citizens we have been set at each others' throats for far too long, a division that only succeeds because we plant ourselves behind screens and let complete strangers tell us what to think and how to feel. In doing this, we have forgotten how to just be friends. So start there. Pay attention to others. Greet people when you see them, even a nod. Learn to listen. Take general interest. See who responds and who doesn't. In time this will open every door that can be opened, and also allow those who have their own reasons for staying aloof the personal privacy they want.

I feel the whole shame thing, but if you can, give yourself permission to set it aside. Seriously. Everyone starts somewhere. You're starting here, and honestly I'm grateful for every single one of us who is feeling just as lost and wondering right now what can I do to help? But you asked; you've already made a start. It's a good one. No shame required. And if you have nothing better in mind, then the answer is, build community. However you can, wherever you can, in whatever small ways feel right to you so that when the shit starts you're already known as an ally.

EDITED to add link

Be the change you want to see then?

I'm in Canada but also a very diverse group of people around me at all times. I make it very clear with everyone that politics aside, I have all their backs regardless of race, colour or creed. Differences are what makes us stronger not weaker and anyone who is afraid of differences shows themselves as weak.

Most of my coworkers in my area are older and white, but the rest of the company is highly mixed. I know most of them are Republicans and are enjoying this sick show even if they're not saying it. Most days I just want to scream.

We know how to stop it, but we'll probably end up dead or imprisoned forever for it so... The revolution will only happen when a lot of people of nothing left to lose.

I'm proudly in camp 3, but holy fuck am I exhausted and depressed!

I mean, they're right, we're in mid to late 1930's Germany. I haven't seen any truly hopeful signs of redemption coming out way.

Yeah, and 1930s Germany wasn't 1940s Germany. But it got there.

Politics is coming full circle, Nazis got most of their inspiration from US politics and policy

Everything? Really? That’s bold. I’ve been around for a while, and I personally can’t remember a time when 3000 armed, masked, untrained and unaccountable thugs were let loose by the federal government on individual cities to openly terrorize, incite, and murder the general population.

Typical .ml tankie bullshit take.

Does America have sordid events in her history? Yes.

But to take a “same shit, different day” stance isn’t just myopic, it assists the present admin by attempting to place the actions of the day in the “normal” zone.

The white people part breaks the inertia, the dismissiveness, the head in the sand aspect OP is referring to.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement are just out doing immigration and customs enforcement things, right? Right up until they shoot two white people in the head.

We’re talking broad strokes perception management here. Most of the public doesn’t have time, inclination is separate, to dig in like the people of Lemmy or the still earnest corners of Reddit, or the journalist/HCR/Robert Reich essay writing corner of Substack.

They vaguely know Immigration & Customs Enforcement are out deporting people. A layer deeper they might know it’s harassment of immigrants and that protestors are protesting. Let’s be real about what “immigrants” means to most Americans: brown people, mainly in the form of Mexicans and Haitians, are being rounded up and deported. But, for the most part, agree or disagree with immigration policy, they’re thinking Immigration & Customs Enforcement is doing that, what their name says.

Right up until someone clearly not fitting the immigrant profile is BAM shot in the head.

Why not Porter? I’m not going to try to argue that color doesn’t matter here. It does. But unlike Floyd, Porter is missing the fundamental piece that creates action like back in 2020: video. Good and Pretti had video. It’s why they target journalists first with the gas now. Video presence matters.

As for the two white people. The world is always more dismissive of women, we are forever placed in the “it’s her fault” zone, but even so. Pretti is unique because he’s also making conservative heads spin around. 2A, VA, a trade adjacent profession, a most trusted profession, an helping/service profession, and he’s a white man, the pinnacle of MAGA.

With Pretti, it’s a coffin nail on the idea that Immigration & Customs Enforcement is doing immigration and customs enforcement things. Pretti completely changes the narrative, for most.

You're wrong about this. It's a reasonable position during the first Trump presidency, but under this one it is not "equal opportunity oppression". White people of privilege being murdered in the streets by cops isn't the new equality... It's the new ceiling. It doesn't mean everyone else has new company in the oppression floor, it means everyone now at the bottom will be shoved into darker depths than some might imagine.

Everything happening right now is normal for the US, the only difference is 2 white people got killed this time so people started paying attention.

This is such bullshit

This is not normal. Quit trying to convince people not to take action by pretending Trump is no different

This is very different. Democracy is genuinely under threat

Exactly. AmeriKKKa has been a shithole for a long long while now. Hope they all rot.