Jul 1, 2026 · 22 min · 15 segments
We'd love to hear from you. Send us your questions, comments, and suggestions. In Episode 9 of the series, Chisom turns to the border, and to the…
Chisom UdezeHost
to a newsroom the water did not fail those children the water did exactly what it was there to do this is the part the usual language is built to hide we are taught to read these deaths as accidents as tragedy as the price of a journey gone wrong something the weather did or the smugglers did or the people themselves did by stepping into the boats we are taught above all to read them as failure of the system a gap the system regrets and is working to close they are not failures of a system they are the system working as designed a border is not only a line It is a set of decisions about who may cross it and what will happen to those who try.

to let the drowning continue because the drowning does the work for them the dead are a message it is addressed to the next person standing at the beach and it reads do not come because this is what coming costs the same decision is written into different landscapes on the other side of the world there the instrument is not water it is heat and distance and the desert a government chose to use as a wall.

to a newsroom the water did not fail those children the water did exactly what it was there to do this is the part the usual language is built to hide we are taught to read these deaths as accidents as tragedy as the price of a journey gone wrong something the weather did or the smugglers did or the people themselves did by stepping into the boats we are taught above all to read them as failure of the system a gap the system regrets and is working to close they are not failures of a system they are the system working as designed a border is not only a line It is a set of decisions about who may cross it and what will happen to those who try.

to let the drowning continue because the drowning does the work for them the dead are a message it is addressed to the next person standing at the beach and it reads do not come because this is what coming costs the same decision is written into different landscapes on the other side of the world there the instrument is not water it is heat and distance and the desert a government chose to use as a wall.
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