What do these people want

We already know what these people want, as we know from Maria del Mar Bonet's great song denouncing fascism, which in these times resonates in our heads too often. Now they want the photograph of a young woman with a hijab to weigh more than an academic record, for prejudice to prevail over merit, and to turn a university graduation into an identity battleground, because that is where they feel most comfortable, stirring up fears even if they are the most unfounded.

The Vox deputy in Congress Jorge Campos published a photograph of Khaoula Ikkene, a graduate in Computer Engineering from the University of the Balearic Islands, with an excellent academic record and chosen to speak at the graduation ceremony on behalf of the entire class. The tweet – written in Spanish and with a photo of Ikkene – was outrageous: “1,375 students from the UIB have graduated. And the Catalanist public university of the Balearic Islands has chosen this student representative to address them...". The message was not against a university decision, it was against a woman, because she wears a hijab; against a citizen of Manacor, because she was born in Morocco, against the idea that a person like her can represent us.

It is the same gaze that led Mariano Rajoy to write that the French national football team has no Frenchmen. For some, there are people who will never be from here. It doesn't matter if they study here, work here, pay taxes here, or speak the local language better than many of those who point them out. There will always be a veil, a skin color, or a lineage that will serve to deny them belonging.

If I'm not mistaken, Khaoula Ikkene arrived in Mallorca when she was about to start 4th year of ESO. She knows five languages. She has integrated into a society that is also hers. She has achieved what any university wants for everyone: talent, effort, and excellence. But we shouldn't even have to list her merits. She also had the right to be a discreet student, to fail, and to not stand out. Rights are not earned with excellent grades. Rights are simply had.

Here the problem is not a tweet, it is what it reveals: the need to point out who is one of us and who is not. This is a discourse that no longer lives only on the margins, but circulates through the streets, homes, cafe conversations and is normalized with a speed that is disturbing, and a lot. Meanwhile, surveys say that immigration is one of the main concerns of Spaniards. Poor immigration, not the kind that comes with a yacht, nor the kind that buys properties, expels residents from the housing market and transforms towns. This immigration does not bother them.

What do these people want, we know. They want cheap labor, if possible without papers and without rights. They want invisible workers to pick fruit, clean hotels, and care for their parents, but who do not occupy spaces of representation, who do not excel. But what is disturbing here is that there are those who turn hatred and racism into a political program. A brilliant young woman representing a university promotion is not a threat, the threat is the one who cannot stand to see her there.