Black-Brown Unity Against Mass Deportations
This article appeared originally in the February ’25 "Stayin' Woke" newsletter.
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Immigrants - second only to African enslaved laborers - built this country. From the mid 19th through early 20th centuries, they were for the most part welcomed with open arms, with the major exception of anti-Asian racism that fomented the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Today, immigrants from all over the world still play vital roles in our economy and our everyday social well-being. Yet, with the changing color composition of immigration over the past century, white supremacy (more accurately, white “pathology") has chosen to demonize the “huddled masses yearning to be free” arriving here from countries torn up by war and violence. Yes, there are some bad elements who should be sifted out through careful screening; yet - despite media amplification of M13 gang members from Latin America, such elements are clearly the minority, as evidenced by the FBI's own stats showing border towns to be safer than big cities in non-border states.
Even more fundamentally, we choose to overlook that the chaos driving immigrants to uproot themselves stems largely from U.S. policies protecting business interests - be it narcotics growing and trafficking, logging, or mining, or multinationals like Ford and Caterpillar paying slave labor wages in factories south of the border (and “west of the border,” i.e. let's remember African immigrants fleeing their continued exploitation).
Fortunately, key groups - mobilized for many years, in part by Obama's sad record of becoming the “Deporter in Chief” - are geared up to fight the new pogroms of CC47. (The label "CC47" is explained here)
But achieving Black-Brown unity has not always been easy - as we're reminded in this In Theses Times article regarding the 2015 Chicago mayoral race. Anti-Black racism is deeply embedded in many Latin countries (witness the Dominican Republic's attempts to strip citizenship from its population with Haitian background), and metastasises here (witness 55% of Latino men supporting CC47). And heavy Latino immigration and presence in low-skilled jobs formerly occupied by many African-Americans has bred resentment on the other side of the aisle.
Still, coalition-building between these two marginalized groups has strong precedent. In the 1970s, mutual respect and co-organizing was strong between the Black Panthers and the Young Lords. And on both the national and local level, Black and Latino political leaders have forged strong alliances. Furthermore, the topic of immigration is often forgotten to be near and dear to the hearts of many subsectors of the Black community, given both Caribbean and African immigration and the particularly unique challenges faced by Black migrants from Latin America.
Therefore, this latest crisis provides the opportunity and compelling need to return to and tighten the ties between us. Organizers are asking us to avoid the divide and conquer playbook by being prepared and building unity, as manifested nicely in this recent Houston rally affirming Black and Brown solidarity.
Si se puede. … and Forward Ever!
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Resources:
> Major advocacy groups:
> Good policy forum video on the issue
> Good presentations on the lesser- discussed challenges of Black immigrants:
(And two other org's of note on this issue: African Communities Together, UndocuBlack)
> Black perspectives on immigration reform:
> And to personalize the plight of deportees, here's a story of a particular individual - a victim of CC47's first raids.
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(*The February ’25 "Stayin' Woke" newsletter, where this article originally appeared, also features a “Chump Survival Kit;” reminder of the 1898 U.S. coup d'etat against Black advancement under Reconstruction; linking losses - from Altadena to Gaza; Black & Brown unity against ICE raids; uplifting developments in Africa's Sahel region; and a personal report-out on the 40th anniversary Havana Jazz Fest. … And click here for the January Stayin' Woke newsletter that featured a tribute to great Black & Brown folks who passed in ’24; Kwanzaa reflections; a push for Biden's final acts; the “Luigi outcry” against corporate America; BIPOC scholars/activists on Israeli impunity; global BIPOC leadership highlights (Korea, México, Sahel, USA, ..); the corporate roots of migration blues; Chump's illegal candidacy; criminal “justice” reflections in light of white boy acquittal in the subway chokehold killing, and recognition of outgoing DOJ efforts; urgent climate/EJ opportunities for BIPOC communities; and Dr Martin Luther King's anti-imperialist “Beyond Vietnam” speech.)