By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

We want you here.

You may wonder where I’m going with this, but – bear with me. It’s the most important thing I’m going to say here, and I want the message to be loud and clear from the start.

Recently some men in a van drove up to some mothers at the East Somerville Community School and threw trash at them, telling them, “We don’t want you here.”

I want to state exactly how wrong they were. I don’t know who these men think they speak for, but it’s not for the people of Somerville. This is a city where residents show up in droves for last-minute rallies in support of immigrants, a city where signs that read “hate has no home here” sit in our yards, and a city that proudly displays not just any banner, but a gigantic, colorful, can’t-miss-it banner proclaiming that “diversity is our strength.” So to the women who were targeted and their families, I want to be clear:

We want you here.

Apparently the women triggered the offending parties simply by their physical appearance. Consider how ridiculous that is. I’ve lived here for 52 years, and Somerville has never been some homogenous enclave where everyone looks and talks the same. Conformity does not rule here. We speak more than 53 different languages in our school district. It’s impossible for anyone to apply some sort of eyeball test for who does or doesn’t belong here.

And that just underlines how inane racism can be. The entire notion that you can drive around and accurately profile people or determine immigration status at a glance is preposterous. Collectively we realized that a long time ago, which is one of many reasons why we’re a sanctuary city. No matter the color of your skin; no matter the language you speak; no matter what, if any, religion you practice, you need to know:

We want you here.

And that brings me to the dog whistle that’s almost constantly blowing at the national level – the one that serves as a persistent invitation and excuse for hate. Just a couple of weeks ago, the President referred to immigrants as an infestation and did a dog and pony show shamefully exploiting the grief of families of people killed by undocumented immigrants (ignoring the fact that we could fill stadiums with families of those killed by people born in America). All that does is incite hatred and take away from the fact that we should mourn all murder victims and seek to protect all potential victims; not just the ones that are politically useful.

When you have a president who perpetuates lies about entire groups of people based solely on their race, nationality, religion, or immigration status, it becomes increasingly challenging to not make the connection between the current administration and the growing brazenness of hate-filled incidents like the one that took place here.

What those men who threw trash should have seen is women who care enough to walk their kids to school, moms who are their neighbors and fellow community members, women who are their fellow human beings.

So again, to every single person, family and child in our community, I say:

We want you here.

It’s a testament to how far off the rails we’re going that I even need to say these words. And I worry that we may be seeing more acts like this to come. This is the same school that was targeted by anti-immigration fliers at the start of the year. Intolerant, prejudiced people are feeling empowered; they’re being indulged and normalized. No one can predict when they’ll recede to the shadows again, but probably not soon enough.

In the meantime, to anyone who gets targeted by this kind of racial hatred, I implore you to reach out to the city, to the police, to our schools, to our local churches and to your neighbors. No one needs to bear this burden alone or in silence. Your community will have your back. Your city will have your back. I will have your back. No matter what the worst among us may say or do, you need to know one undeniable truth:

We want you here.