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Why I
Support the Latino Demonstrators
By Amin Sharif
Ever since Rudolph Lewis (editor of
ChickenBones) and I sat down and formulated the
idea of the Fourth World, we wondered how it would play
itself out in the real world. After all,
conceptualizations are nothing if they do not reflect
reality on some level. It had been my contention that
Fourth World activism would be sustained in Europe where
racism and religious intolerance would set millions of
Africans, Asians, and Arabs against Western governments.
Last years riots in France seemed to
be a confirmation of my estimate. Even today, we can
certainly find Fourth World people—Africans, Asians, and
Arabs—in some numbers among the student demonstrators on
the streets of Paris protesting the new labor laws aimed
at emasculation the rights of all French youth. And
certainly as the Chirac government has now announced the
scrapping of this law, members of the Fourth World in
Europe can celebrate a well-won victory.
But, as we looked west toward Europe,
we had no idea that in the space of a few months there
would be hundreds of thousands of Mexicans (and other
Latinos) taking to the streets of America protesting
against a racist immigration policy that would attempt
to criminalize an entire community. For Rudy and me,
the emergence of this Latino militancy—especially among
the youth—is both a welcome and unexpected surprise. It
is our hope that this Latino militancy might re-ignite
the activism and militancy that has been flagging within
Afro-America since the end of the 1970s.
Already in Baltimore where Rudy and I
live, we see students involved in protests against
school closings and the lowering of academic standards
that would put them at a disadvantage in pursuing their
goals of a higher education. To see ten of thousands of
their Latino brothers and sisters out in the streets can
only serve to inspire these Black students in their
struggle. In the end, this is how we-Blacks and
Latinos-must see each other-as brothers and sisters.
For, in the fundamental struggle to transform America
into a more equitable society, we are undoubtedly on the
same side.
There is, of course, some grumbling
in the Black Community about how Latinos have come to
this country to take “our jobs”—as though any job in
America is designated for Blacks, Browns, or anyone
else. This is nothing more than a knee-jerk response of
reactionary forces within the Black Community—especially
among elected officials. It echoes the same sentiment
that white Americans exhibited before the Civil War that
the freeing of millions of black slaves would threaten
the livelihood of white workers.
It seems that some black elected
officials and other reactionaries within the black
community are more interested in guarding their own
parochial interests than in extending a helping hand to
poor and working class Latinos.
More than that, these leaders are
bent on dividing Blacks and Latinos by spreading the
venom of racial chauvinism that is aimed at setting each
community at each others throats. This is sad since we
have just buried the widow of Dr. King who would have
undoubtedly championed the cause of the Latino
community. Instead of providing real leadership for the
black community on economic issues as both Dr. King and
his courageous wife attempted, these politicians and
reactionaries have chosen to castigate a community whose
efforts they should be supporting.
Ask these politicians exactly how
does a Latino who has come to pick lettuce in a field in
California take away jobs from Blacks. Ask how does a
Latina hospital or a Latino construction worker drive
down any Black persons wages. They would probably mouth
the same rhetoric as a thousand other racists in
America. But the last time I looked I did not see poor
Blacks or whites line up to pick lettuce in California.
The only reason a Latino hospital or
a construction worker might drive down wages is because
she or he is not unionized. Rather than lead the drive
to bring millions of Latinos into the main economy, some
Black leaders would wish to have them remain in the
shadow economy where they will always be a sword pressed
against the throat of every poor and working class
person in America.
The fundamental question for Blacks
in regard to Latinos is simply empathy. Can we, the most
oppressed people in America, look beyond our own
suffering and see the suffering of others? Or has our
suffering made us numb to any pain but our own? Let us
hope that this is not the case.
We should remember how we felt when
we took to the streets and stormed the citadels of
power. And, we should remember how we looked in every
quarter for empathy for our cause. Remember how we stood
shoulder to shoulder as Dr. King’s voice rang out
extolling us to find justice not simply for ourselves
but for the whole of humanity?
Are we to discard that greater call
for one made by minor demagogues and political eunuchs
who reside in the citadels of power that we once sought
to bring down? It is my belief that we gain more than we
lose when we help others who like ourselves suffer from
oppression. My heart races and swells again when I see
so many Latino youth waving their Mexican flags and
standing up for what they believe.
There are real ways that Blacks and
Latinos can work together to ensure that each community
can make economic advancements. The first thing we must
do is to bring our Latino brothers and sisters out from
under the shadow economy and to unionize them.
Unionization of millions of Latino workers would mean
greater strength for all workers in America and would
put upward pressure on wages.
Together, Blacks and Browns can work
for a universal living wage that would ensure economic
parity for every American worker—Black, Brown, Asian,
white or otherwise. This is particularly important since
it is clear that one of the main tactics of the
reactionary forces in America is to pit one sector of
the poor against another. We can also work together to
bring about the realization of universal health care.
Universal healthcare would disarm the argument that
Latinos put a strain on critical services in the
community where they live. Latinos are not the only ones
this claim is made against. The same argument is used
against the Black and urban poor.
But none of this cooperation can
occur if Blacks do not support full and immediate
citizenship for the millions of Mexicans and their
children in America who have lived and worked in this
country for years—and a more humane path to citizenship
for all future Latinos entering the country. If Latinos
are forced to live a marginal existence in the barrios
of this country, the entire working class and poor will
be robbed of their strength and militancy.
Black workers, students, and trade
unionists should seek to form alliances with their
Latino counterparts and expand the movement to block any
effort to criminalize the Mexican community. We should
work to ease the tensions between Black and Latino gangs
that have turned many of our prisons into racial
tinderboxes. We must come to understand that if millions
of Blacks stand together with millions of Latinos that
we can and will bring about beneficial change for both
communities.
This is why I fully and unequivocally
support the Latino demonstrators and their goals. This
is why I shout with them when they take to the streets,
“A people united can never be defeated!”
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posted 11 April 2006
/ update 3 July 2009 |
