Saturday, June 13, 2020

Latino and black Americans are allies in the fight for racial justice by Janet Murguía, CEO, UnidosUS

Great, powerful statement by Janet Murguía, CEO of UnidosUS in The Hill. I like this statement, in particular.

"Our solidarity with black Americans is rooted in the shared structural inequities that impact both of our communities."

We always appear right next to each other in all the harmful statistics. And the capitalist, patriarchal, and colonial system always seeks to divide us.  Divide and conquer.  We must work together to un-do systems of oppression that we collectively share.  We must nurture our existing relationships across difference.  We must read our own histories. We must read each others' histories.  We must love one another.

I myself remember coming into my own awareness as a result of undergraduate college courses that I took as an English and Spanish undergraduate major around thirty years ago that exposed me to diverse literatures pertinent to the Mexican American, African American, and Jewish American experience. These courses spoke to me so deeply and powerfully that I've never stopped advocating for them ever since.

We must therefore work toward an educational system that liberates these knowledges and transformative ways of knowing and being in the world.  And as communities, we must re-double our efforts and work together in coalitions of conscience.

Yes, Ms. Murguía, solidarity!  Solidaridad!  

Juntos Venceremos!  Together we shall win!

-Angela Valenzuela

#BlackLivesMatter


Latino and black Americans are allies in the fight for racial justice

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