Lily Benavides: Racial Profiling Official US Policy – Is US an Apartheid State?

As a follow up question upon receipt of this press release from Lily Benavides, write-in candidate for Governor for the Green Party of NJ this editor asked: Do you believe this ruling is a step to US becoming an apartheid state? The following is Lily Benavides’s reply:

The definition of APARTHEID is: racial segregation policies, like the different sets of laws in Israel for Jewish citizens vs Arabs, Muslims or Christians citizens as it used to be in South Africa when it was white minority governed. The following quotes this source.

“Various reasons can be given for apartheid, although they are all closely linked. The main reasons lie in ideas of racial superiority and fear. Across the world, racism is influenced by the idea that one race must be superior to another. Such ideas are found in all population groups.

The other main reason for apartheid was fear, as in South Africa the white people are in the minority, and many were worried they would lose their jobs, culture and language. This is obviously not a justification for apartheid, but explains how people were thinking.”

Well, this ruling is even more specific. It targets Spanish speakers and anyone with an accent. That puts any immigrant at risk even those that have lived here for decades and that are citizens. This basically is trampling over any immigrant’s rights. We can see clearly that their goal is to convert this country in a “whites-only” nation. – Lily Benavides, Green Party Write-In Candidate for Governor

For more information, contact Madelyn Hoffman, campaign manager for benavidesforgovernor2025 at mrhlepaix@gmail.com or 973-876-1023 

Barry Bendar, Green Party of New Jersey Elections Chair at bbendar@gmail.com or 609-276-3183

or Lily Benavides at benavidesforgovernor2025@gmail.com or 862-243-2741

One week ago today, by a vote of 6 -3, the US Supreme Court ruled that ICE agents in Los Angeles could stop people if they “look like” they might be “undocumented.” Lily Benavides, Green Party of New Jersey’s candidate for Governor in 2025 responds:

“They can call it whatever they want but we all know it’s racism, pure and simple. They don’t even hide it anymore. How is it possible that in this century something so awful can be approved by the major legal authority of this country?”

Benavides continued, “When I came to this country with a bag filled with dreams about the wonderful life in ‘America’, I never thought that 36 years later I should make a survival plan for our family, just in case. My family is mixed. We are from different countries, we speak different languages, and we have different customs, but we are still a beautiful family and I will defend them tooth and nail if necessary.”

Lily Benavides knows from personal experience what it’s like to be on the receiving end of racist immigration policies. She has fought against that racism for as long as she has lived in the US and continues to do so today. Even though she already spoke English when she moved here (not as fluently as she does now), she remembers vividly at least one racist moment out of many.

“I still see myself standing in my son’s middle school main office to inquire about something and I noticed how every white person that came in would come and go and were attended and was still there waiting for someone to ask me what I needed. I can’t remember for how long this was going on until I got upset and I had to raise my voice to stop being invisible. That’s what they want. They want us to become invisible. They want us to disappear. I feel very proud to be bilingual and there isn’t anything of anyone that would stop me from speaking my maternal language. It reminds me of my roots.”

Benavides’ concerns extend to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, North, South and Central.

“It brings me joy to listen to indigenous people communicating with each other and sadness at the same time to know that they want to exterminate them, that they want to exterminate all of us. This is our land. This is the land of our ancestors.”

Lastly, Benavides takes on the challenge of naming the whole continent of the Americas correctly and not just singling out North America as “America”. It is a difficult challenge because using the word “America” solely to refer to the United States is deeply engrained in US culture.

“America” is not just this piece of land,” Benavides states in many gatherings. “LAS AMÉRICAS is a whole continent. All those white Europeans that say that they are not racist, let me ask you. When are you going to start recognizing that this is North America and not the center of the universe? When are you going to start calling yourselves North Americans? When are you going to recognize that there are indigenous natives of this continent from north to south?”

Benavides and the Greens believe that not being racist is about respecting others’ cultures and wanting to learn from them. It is about being anti-racist and joining the fight against an organized system made on purpose to prevent people of color from becoming too powerful.

“That is why WE SHOULD NOT HAVE BORDERS,” concludes Benavides. “Before all this chaos, many decades ago, indigenous were free to go back and forth at the border without anyone asking them for papers. Not being racist is not about eating tacos or celebrating 5 de Mayo. It is not about how some politicians in every election use black and brown people as tokens to win. It is not about elected officials inviting Latino “leaders” to join their privileged groups for a show-off.”

Racism is a pestilence that has always existed and persists. It is our duty to continue raising our voices against it until we succeed and change the system. “The system” needs to be dismantled, so we can create a new one for all of us united as a family.”