Let’s keep it 100: the Supreme Court is currently locked in a major clash, and it’s the same old story we’ve been seeing for decades. They’re up there arguing over whether the Trump administration’s plan to kick thousands of Haitian immigrants out of the country was driven by straight-up racial animus. The whole debate centers on a split that’s had the country divided for a minute now: how seriously are we supposed to take the president’s loose, provocative, and sometimes ugly remarks? While these rich judges in black robes sit in their air-conditioned courthouse debating the “rhetoric,” actual families in our neighborhoods are stressed out of their minds, wondering if they’re about to get shipped back to a country that’s still in shambles.

This whole situation shows how the system plays games with people’s lives. For the folks on the ground, Trump saying wild, disrespectful things about Haiti and Black immigrants wasn’t just him “posting through it” or using “unconventional language.” He was saying the quiet part out loud. In the hood, we know how systemic racism works—it usually hides behind clean suits and fancy legal jargon. But when the man at the top flat-out tells you how he feels, you’d have to be blind not to see how that energy flows straight down into the actual policies his people are writing.

The legal high-muck-a-mucks want to act like this is some super complex puzzle. They’re arguing about Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which was given to Haitian folks after the massive earthquake back in 2010. These families have been here for over a decade, putting in work, paying taxes, raising kids, and building real lives in our communities. Now, the government wants to act like everything is completely fine back in Haiti and wrap the program up. But anyone with internet access knows Haiti is still dealing with major crisis after crisis. Trying to force people back there under the guise of “temporary status expired” is cold-blooded, plain and simple.

During this court battle, the lawyers are throwing around old cases like Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. (1977) to argue about “intent.” They’re trying to prove that the administration’s official paperwork was just a cover-up for the president’s personal bias. But honestly, why do we need a 40-year-old court case to prove what everyone already heard with their own ears? When someone tells you who they are and what they think about you, you believe them. Trying to separate the president’s ugly remarks from his administration’s actual deportation orders is the ultimate gaslighting.