Guest Column
African Americans and Latino Immigrants: Living Side by Side
By Randy Jurado Ertll
Can African Americans and Latino immigrants present a
united front on immigration? As the debate continues to heat up across the
nation, a recent roundtable discussion was held in Los Angeles to discuss
just that.
As a result, some leaders from both communities rejected House Resolution
4437 (Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act
of 2005), which would have criminalized millions of immigrants.
African Americans and Latino immigrants have lived and worked among each
other for decades now and many have embraced each other’s traditions and
culture. However, we cannot deny the fact that some members of both
communities are not tolerant. The leadership in both communities must
establish better communication by simply creating more channels of
interaction and talking to each other on a regular basis.
That is what will build trust and respect. The pats on the backs and hugs
between Latino and African American elected officials are not enough. We
need to do more grassroots organizing and develop community dialogues among
working class community members. Thousands of African Americans and Latinos
do live in Pasadena, many are concentrated in the Northwest area.
Both communities have in common high poverty rates, high drop out rates from
public schools, youth becoming gang affiliates, and astronomical
unemployment rates. These negative indicators must change if both
communities are to improve their standards of living.
Elected officials and community leaders must come up with creative ideas on
how to bridge the communication gap that currently exist between both
communities. The lack of communication and misunderstandings are some of
the causes that create and perpetrate negative stereotypes from both
communities. Also, the lack of jobs does create desperation and
hopelessness, leading to the blame game.
Some African American community members are already saying that Latino
immigrants take away jobs and that they do not bother to learn English.
These types of accusations must be further analyzed and the leadership from
both communities must address these issues. Do in fact Latino immigrants
take away jobs from African Americans? UCLA, USC, or Occidental College
should conduct a research study regarding the realities of both communities.
Many African Americans are now learning how to speak Spanish and many Latino
immigrants are in fact enrolling in evening schools to learn English. These
efforts will ultimately benefit both communities and will strengthen
interactions.
Older leaders must set the example for the younger generations to follow.
The Civil Rights leaders from both communities cannot afford to remain
silent and complacent. The Latino leadership who helped to organize the
massive march in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday March 25 must do a better
job of inviting and involving African American leaders to support such
efforts.
The tensions in public schools and the prison system are indicators that not
all is well. Therefore, school administrators and school board members must
emphasize that cultural sensitivity and implementation of curriculum that
includes history of African Americans and Latinos is essential for our youth
to become more tolerant and knowledgeable.
Ignorance usually breeds violence. We must not allow our young people to be
uninformed and driven to join gangs that will most likely lead them to enter
the prison system, instead of entering community colleges and universities.
The cement streets of Los Angeles and Pasadena already absorbed too much
blood, from African American and Latino immigrant youth.
Let us embrace the immigrant roots from both, the African American and
Latino community. Let us not forget that our ancestors came from other
countries, as immigrants. America has been built on the sweat, blood, and
tears of immigrants, then and now.
_____________________________________________________
Randy Jurado Ertll is executive director of El Centro de Accion Social
located in Pasadena, CA. Contact: 626-628-5844 or
randyertll@yahoo.com
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