Statue of Liberty
“The New Colossus” is the name of the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Penned by Emma Lazarus, it imagined Lady Liberty as a welcoming beacon for those displaced by hunger and war. The name comes from a reference to one of the wonders of the ancient world, the Greek Colossus.
By titling her poem “The New Colossus,” Lazarus intended to contrast the “brazen” male statue of the Greek Colossus (covered with brass and standing across the water like a conqueror) with the more welcoming female Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty was protective, nurturing, the “mother of exiles,” where the old colossus was one of rigidity, power and brazenness.
Last summer, I decided to name my Isthmus column The New Colossus because of this. The poem resonated deeply with me as an immigrant. We have strayed too far from “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...” in favor of the anti-immigrant rhetoric normalized during Trump’s presidency; we desperately need more of Lady Liberty’s forgiveness and sense of responsibility in our lives.
I’m reflecting on this all now given the events in Afghanistan.
The first Afghan refugees arrived in Wisconsin on Aug. 22 at Fort McCoy, the state’s only operating military installation. Wisconsin is expecting to receive anywhere from a few hundred to 2,000 refugees in the coming weeks. If there were ever a moment in our nation’s history where we are going to be put to Lady Liberty’s test, it is now.
Islamophobia, xenophobia and anti-immigrant fear is rampant and has changed the discourse around how our country views the outside world. We are even more hostile and less accepting of those who don’t look like us. Afghan refugees, looking for security and opportunity, might be subject to a version of America we shouldn’t be proud of.
While I cannot speak to the refugee experience, I can speak to the immigrant one. My family and I faced language barriers, social isolation and pressures to assimilate. There was also Islamophobia. Making a new home where you are not wanted, where you are feared, is a difficult task.
We have an opportunity now in Wisconsin to be true to what is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. We must greet Afghan people with love, support, and the benefit of the doubt. We cannot treat them as if they are guests; too often Black and brown immigrants in this country are subject to second-class citizenship, a life without agency or the confidence that they belong here. It is debilitating, demoralizing, and flies in the face of the values America was founded on.
If we are truly the land of freedom and liberty, we must, in the words of Lazarus, be generous in who we extend that to:
“Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
It’s time for Wisconsin to lift its lamp and welcome our new Afghan neighbors.
Nada Elmikashfi is a former candidate for state Senate and chief of staff to state Rep. Francesca Hong.
