T-shirts are now being sold to celebrate "Alligator Alcatraz," a Florida attraction where migrants are placed in cages, surrounded by alligators, and publicly taunted in the name of entertainment. What may seem like a political stunt or lighthearted tourism has quickly become a disturbing reflection of how easily we dehumanize others.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has embraced similar spectacles as part of his broader anti-immigration platform. The current presidential administration continues to lean into rhetoric that reduces migrants to symbols rather than people.

As a historian, I cannot view this in isolation. "Alligator Alcatraz" is not just a crude joke. It is part of a much older story, one where cages, confinement, and cruelty have been used to assert control, shape national identity, and justify exclusion.

Long before this moment, Native Americans were the first to experience the force of institutionalized containment. From forced removal under the Indian Removal Act to the reservation system that isolated indigenous communities, and the boarding schools that stripped........

© Arkansas Online