Different ships, same boat

This article discusses the growing trend of de-facto and legal segregation and discrimination that Latinos in the South are experiencing. So embedded is this discrimination, there is even a new term for it: Juan Crow, which is a Spanish spin on Jim Crow.

This article is lengthy and worth reading as it details the challenging that Latinos (mostly Mexican) are facing. There is much to be said about the immigration struggle in America and the growing problem of globalization. More and more, workers are losing out as companies expand across borders. In this article, Georgia politicos welcome overseas companies into its state, while undermining the rights of the very people whose blood, sweat and tears contribute to the profits.

However, what I drew from it the most is the Latino/Black American divide that exists in this whole immigration debate. One student describes the racism he experiences from not only white students, but Black students as well. An Afro-Latina speaks about the ordeals of being misunderstood by Blacks and discriminated against by whites and white Latinos.

A striking quote:

"But when I was in seventh grade, I went to Richards Middle School, where it wasn't the white people saying things, it was black people. They didn't like Mexican kids. They would call us 'Mexican border hoppers,' 'wetbacks' and all these things. Every time they'd see me, they yelled at me, threatened to beat me up after school for no reason at all." Asked how it felt, he said, "It's like, now since they have rights, they can discriminate [against] others."

He bluntly states part of this divide. Rev. Joseph Lowery, an activist quoted in the article says this:

"There are many differences between our experience and that of immigrant Latinos--but there is a family resemblance between Jim Crow and what is being experienced by immigrants. Both met economic oppression. Both met racial and ethnic hostility."But the most important thing to remember," said Lowery, as if casting out the demons of Juan and Jim Crow, "is that, though we may have come over on different ships, we're all in the same damn boat now."

The Black Struggle in America is truly unique. And while there are commonalities in racial oppressions, Latinos are experiencing a different racial oppression unique to their culture, history and origins. While it is important to understand these truths, oppressed groups can learn much from the Black Civil rights movement. Don't appropriate it, but try to understand it and take from it a blueprint for organizing. Learn from its mistakes and glean from it some inspiration. (I understand that part of this inability to unite with Blacks is racism on the part of Latinos.)

Conversely, what have Blacks not learned from our own struggles that we are comfortable enough to reject others using the same philosophies that validated our own oppression? This sort of hypocrisy saddens me, then alarms me, then angers me. Like Lowery said, "we're in the same damn boat now" and our inability to recognize that we share a common enemy in powerful members of the dominant culture makes it no surprise that we are where we are these days. Once again, Blacks have co-opted white patriarchy and used what privilege we do have to exclude others. How can we not see that an unified racial front is needed to truly make gains? How can we not see that by advocating for and securing the rights of all workers, we are making a grand impact on a poor economic state of affairs?

While we work with nativist groups and hateful white politicians to deny fundamental rights to Latinos, we will continue to contribute to our own oppression. And while Latinos continue to resist their own African roots and adopt white racist ideologies about Blacks, they will miss opportunities to gain allies in their quest for basic freedoms in America.