b*****d
发帖数: 61690 | 1 Jason Nichols is a full-time faculty member in the African American Studies
Department at the University of Maryland College Park. His writing has
appeared in the Baltimore Sun.
Why black and Latino communities must join forces in resisting Trump
BY JASON NICHOLS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 04/17/17 04:20 PM EDT 47
Now is the time for a lasting coalition of people of color.
The coalition must be between politicians, activists, and other community
workers and organizations. In the age of Trump, everything that was being
fought for over the last several years by immigration activists and
advocates for police reform is in major jeopardy.
Now, we see that the issues overlap, and it will take Civil Rights era
steadfastness and vigilance to protect our human rights.
Many of us were disheartened by the death of Tamir Rice, a young Cleveland
boy who was gunned down by police officers. Despite the efforts to portray
the desire to reform police as being anti-police, around the nation we found
police executives who wanted to find ways to restore trust between officers
and the public they serve and better their profession.
The Justice Department investigated cities like Baltimore and Ferguson which
lead to consent decrees to initiate cultural and institutional changes in
policing.
Tamir Rice, whose life was taken at the tender age of 13, is a patron Saint
of police reform. However, with the new administration, there will be little
focus on making those much needed changes.
Jeff Sessions, who many argue has been an anti-Black opponent of Civil
Rights for much of his career, has stated that consent decrees “undermine
the respect for officers”. He uses the “bad apple” argument that
wrongdoing is the result of a few individuals.
The DoJ reports in Baltimore showed patterns of civil rights violations.
Most importantly, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis made clear that
he felt the Department of Justice report “serve to solidify our roadmap”
to improve policing in the city.
While the media has focused on the issue of policing affecting African
American communities, urban Latinos have dealt with the same problems, along
with forgotten groups like the mentally ill.
The death of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca should be viewed much in the
same way as Rice. Guereca, 15, was shot by a border patrol agent. The agent
was on the US side of the border, while Guereca was on the Mexican side.
While cellphone footage doesn’t always provide context, it appears that
Hernandez Guereca was running away unarmed when he was gunned down in one
video of the incident from a witness.
Instead of trying to put in place measures that could prevent tragedies like
the death of Hernandez Guereca from happening, the Trump administration has
simply ramped up the efforts of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement by providing them unfettered discretion.
They are targeting undocumented people who are guilty of minor offenses,
much like what happened to the largely African American residents of
Ferguson. The Trump administration has referred to the search for
undocumented people as a “military operation.” One of the biggest concerns
of Black Lives Matter was the militarization of police.
While African American academics, politicians, artists, and activists have
been actively resisting mass incarceration and private prisons, President
Trump has increased the quota for daily immigrant detention to 80,000. New
facilities are under construction in Georgia and Texas.
Just as largely African American inmates are being coerced into working for
private companies in prison and economically exploited due to a loophole in
the 13th amendment to the Constitution, undocumented immigrants, largely
Latino (though many non-Latino Blacks as well) are being exploited in
similar ways.
Under President Obama, a class action lawsuit was filed against the GEO
Group, which is contracted by ICE to run immigrant detention centers. The
suit claims that people housed in the facility for forced to work without
pay or for $1 per day. The Obama administration tried to end the
relationship between the federal government and private prison entities.
Trump’s desire to deport 2 to 3 million undocumented people will likely
keep the market for private prisons open. Their stock has been strong since
Trump’s election.
The interests of African Americans and Latinos are too closely tied together
to work in isolation. The Congressional Black Caucus should not work
without the support of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Members of the NAACP, National Council of La Raza, and even League of United
Latin American Citizens need to establish firm communication and work
together. They need to establish a firm joint agenda that goes far beyond
simple opposition to the Trump regime.
The need to work hard to galvanize voters for both 2018 and 2020, and help
whoever the opponent to Trump is establish a clear coherent message,
something that the Clinton campaign failed to do.
African American media needs to include more Latino voices, and Spanish
language media needs to include African Americans (yes, some of us speak
Spanish, including me). This will be a major step in breaking down cultural
barriers that keep us separated.
If there is a lesson we all should learn for 2016, a house divided gets
trumped.
Jason Nichols is a full-time faculty member in the African American Studies
Department at the University of Maryland College Park. His writing has
appeared in the Baltimore Sun. | s*x
发帖数: 8041 | 2 African American Studies Department
竟然有一个系，到底研究啥啊？ | l***h
发帖数: 78 | 3 今后还可以有African American Science Studies Department
今后还可以有African American Math Studies Department
今后还可以有African American Language Studies Department
今后还可以有African American xyz Studies Department | u***n
发帖数: 21026 | 4 Asian American Studies Department
European American Studies Department
【在 s*x 的大作中提到】
: African American Studies Department
: 竟然有一个系，到底研究啥啊？
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