There Was No Right Answer: Conditional Humanity and ICE

We're all in the trap now

It’s always a shocking part of WWII movies.

You know the scene – a Nazi shoots someone for refusing some simple order or standing in the wrong place, and just walks off like it’s the most normal thing in the world that he just killed a human.

It’s always been sortof unbelievable, frankly. That someone could be so inhumane. That humanity could become conditional. That you could only be seen as a human if you are in the right group.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that over the past few days.

Last week, an ICE agent named Jonathan Ross shot Renee Nicole Good point-blank in the head three times as she tried to drive away from the ICE agents that had aggressively approached her car. One agent had yelled “get out of the car,” while another simultaneously yelled “get out of here.” As they yelled, one of them reached through her open drivers’ side window to try to open her car door from the inside.

Good turned her steering wheel dramatically to the right to avoid them and tried to drive away.

That’s when Ross, who had positioned himself by the front bumper of her car and was filming the entire encounter from his phone, opened fire. Once through the windshield, twice through the open driver’s side window as she drove past. MAGA has claimed it self-defense, arguing her car was a lethal weapon.

He continued filming as her car hit a telephone pole. At which time you can hear a male voice mutter “f@cking b@tch.”

Then he walked (with no limp or other suggestion of injury) to her car, where he snapped a photo – presumably of her – with his phone.

Then he walked back to his fellow ICE agents, got into a truck, and left the scene.

Image Credit: This gorgeous original art is by Shelby Goodrich Eckard, who shared this image of it on her Threads account. @pcossupportgirl. Follow her here on substack at PCOS SUPPORT GIRL

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One of the most shocking aspects of the murder of Renee Nicole Good is Ross’s lack of shock.

You would expect someone who had just shot a woman in the head three times to express something. Horror at what they’d done, certainly. Some kind of emotional response to the weightiness of having just taken a human life.

Instead of looking concerned, or conflicted, or remorseful – he looked annoyed. Maybe angry. He never dropped his phone – he kept recording; he took a photo.

But it wasn’t just him. None of the agents expressed horror at what had just happened, or yelled at him, or demanded he remain to answer questions. They simply returned to their task of monitoring protesters, who were distraught and screaming for them to do something. They didn’t. They didn’t run to help her, didn’t try to administer aid. Instead, they kept a physician from tending to her, and refused the ambulance access – the medics that eventually arrived traveled on foot.

Renee Nicole Good’s murder is hard to comprehend, because the most logical conclusion is also the most damning.

They weren’t shocked or fussed or conflicted because there was nothing to be shocked or fussed or conflicted about. She wasn’t really human to them anymore. She was already categorized and sorted into a group where violence from authorities doesn’t register as violence at all.

You can see that reflected in the immediate question we got from Republicans, which was “Why didn’t she just comply?”

Why didn’t she stop her own murder? Why was she there in the first place? Why was she so irresponsible as to put these poor federal agents into the position of being in a position to kill her? Shouldn’t she have known she was “asking for trouble”?

Women are used to getting these kinds of questions, which are really justifications for violence delivered with a question mark.

We’re used to being the ones responsible for our own pain, and so perhaps it should land softer with us because we’re used to the abuse. But the truth is, we’re raw from the experience and frankly I think we’ve had enough.

Folks asking those questions not only accept the dehumanization – they want to cling to some semblance of control. If they can believe that she was somehow responsible for her own murder, then they can rest easier knowing they still have some control over their own lives.

But that’s the thing – there’s nothing she could have done that would have stopped what happened. She actually was complying (with one of the orders she was given). But there was no compliance that would have saved her. She was already sorted into a group where her life didn’t matter.

And the truth is, they didn’t approach her because she had committed a crime. They approached her because they were angry that she was in their way. She was inconvenient.

Her crime was that she was a woman who didn’t immediately make herself small enough, compliant enough, invisible enough.

When your humanity is conditional, you don’t have to do anything to earn punishment. You just have to be in the wrong group, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. And then nothing you do matters. No “right answer” will earn you safety.

For my fellow white activists, please know that Black and Brown people have been screaming from the rooftops about the dehumanization of Black Americans for decades (actually centuries). They’ve been dealing with its very direct impacts for more than 400 years. Chattel slavery may have ended, but putting conditions on the humanity of Black Americans never stopped. Far too few listened to their warnings, or dismissed the inhumanities as “not my problem.” They’re rightly frustrated that now that the dehumanization has expanded to include white people, suddenly everyone is shocked and spurred into action. I could say the same for other marginalized groups.

So while many have been shaken awake by Renee’s murder, we can’t let the movement that arises from it be a movement of white people saving white people. It must be a moment when we push back against the dehumanization of all – especially those that have been most marginalized.

Because our fellow Americans’ experiences prove that there’s nothing new about the model they’re using.

They’re just expanding on it, and including more of us in its grasp.

We’ve been watching the rhetoric escalate for years now. “Liberal scum.” “Enemies from within.” Democratic cities being called slums, and the people living in them cockroaches. There’s the casual way certain groups of people are discussed more as problems to be solved rather than human beings with lives to lead and families to feed and futures to chart.

Through most of it, folks shrugged and asked why we were so up in arms about words. We we told we were overreacting. That it’s just words, just politics, just the way things are now in a country so divided.

But words shape thoughts; and thoughts shape actions; and this is what those actions become. This is what happens when you give an insecure man a gun and put him in front of people who he thinks of as less than fully human.

I almost hate to admit it, but this is what it looks like when the dehumanization of a group is nearly complete. Remorse is gone; fear of reprisal is gone; shock is gone. When a brutal act doesn’t register as brutal to them or the people around them – when they don’t try to hide it or justify it, or feel conflicted about it afterward – then we have truly entered a dangerous space where taking a life has become an annoyance and there’s no reaction simply because there’s nothing to react to.

I don’t know how we convince people who have accepted this level of dehumanization to see others as fully human again. I don’t know if that’s even possible.

But I do know that we have something those living under the rise of fascism in the 1930s didn’t have. We’ve seen where casual dehumanization leads. We’ve watched those WWII movies. We know what happens when good people decide it’s not their problem, when they convince themselves that compliance will keep them safe, when they look away from atrocity because acknowledging it would require them to act.

We have the benefit of that history. We can draw strength and strategy from it. We can learn from those who resisted, who hid their neighbors, who refused to participate, who said “not in my name.”

And we can reinsert our humanity – and insist on the humanity of others – before it’s too late.

Renee Nicole Good was a beautiful, vibrant, sparkling human being. She deserves to be witnessed in her life, in all her humanness, and in her death.

Her murder demands to be witnessed, to be reckoned with.

And we have to decide if we’re going to let this be who we are. Individually, and collectively.

At least I know I would not have been a “good German.”

I wonder what they’ll call compliant Americans in 50 years. Whatever term they use, I’m determined it won’t apply to me.

Or to you.

Let’s get to work.

Actions for the Week of January 13, 2026

Friend, things may be heavy – but you can lighten that load by doing something small – a “small deed” – to bring about the world that you want to see. I call it Action Therapy.

That’s why in each Tuesday post I share a few “small things” – usually a Small Thing to Read, a Small Event to Attend, and a Small Call to Make or Action to Take. My intention here is to give you actions you can tuck into your week with ease – and know that you’re doing something today to make tomorrow better.

Join me in doing so. It matters.

Small Events to Attend:

Prepare for Walkout on January 20 (H/T to Rogan's List !)

Next Tuesday at 2pm The Women’s March is organizing Free America walkouts to mourn the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. The walkouts will take place at 2:00PM local time on Tuesday, January 20th. This is a stepped up commitment for a moment that demands more of us. Local organizers are being asked to schedule mutual aid planning meetings, public service, and protests for folks to join. You can find actions via the Women’s March website here: https://action.womensmarch.com/calendars/free-america-weekend. Help spread the word with this social media toolkit.

There will be an organizing call tonight at 8pm eastern. Register here.

Blue Tennessee Monthly Meeting:

Tonight at 7:30 pm eastern we’ll be gathering the Blue Tennessee community to hear from a great panel of experts that will break down bills to watch for this upcoming legislative session. We'll also spend time talking about this slate of legislation they plan to introduce. Join us!

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/m6iMJZAjSJ-qPoLnEocBiA

Blue Missouri Monthly Meeting

Then this Thursday we’ll be hosting the first Blue MO monthly meeting of 2026 with Jess Piper and featured guest (and great friend of Blue MO!) Elad Gross. We will be discussing the upcoming legislative session and focusing on the legalities the legislation coming through. There were over 1,000 prefiled bills in December…and that can produce a lot of anxiety for those of us who have lived in Missouri for any length of time.

We will also discuss the gerrymandered map and the attempt by the Secretary of State to throw out over 100,000 signatures.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KWqmP5EiRo6m74HqhZs0-A

Small Thing to Read: WaPo Coverage on Trump’s Attempts to Change the 2026 Election

I actually didn’t WANT to read this piece, but felt I needed to, and I’m glad I did. It details the various efforts that have been underway to impact/change the 2026 election. From staffing decisions to redistricting demands, it’s a great rundown of the various efforts by the administration to tilt the scales in its favor.

I think it’s vitally important, though, that we understand these are their efforts - and that our pushback is critical to keep them from succeeding. Eyes open, everyone! https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/12/trump-midterms-elections-voting-redistricting/

Action to Take H/T to Rogan’s List!

You may recall that North Carolina Republicans deemed tens of thousands of voters “inactive.” The list include disproportionate amounts of young and Black voters. The state Democratic Party is trying to reach out to everyone on this list, currently at 71,415 names, to get them to update their information and ensure they can cast a regular ballot in November.

Join the Voter Defense Project to call voters across North Carolina who need to update their voter registration. The voters on this list must take action to ensure they can cast a regular ballot in the 2026 elections.

Every eligible voter deserves the chance to make their voice heard this November. Let’s make sure our neighbors across North Carolina are ready.

You’ll receive a Zoom link to join. A thorough training will be provided at the beginning of the phone bank. No prior experience required. Register here.

Thanks for reading, friend – I’m glad to see you here! You’re making a difference, I promise.

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