Do you relate to the televised images of thousands coming together to rally for immigrants’ rights?
Fifty-thousand in Atlanta and even several thousand right here in downtown St. Louis. One report noted that in Mississippi, they sang “We Shall Overcome” IN SPANISH!
In North Carolina and Dallas, there were calls for an economic boycott by immigrants to display their financial might. I couldn’t help but stare at the pictures of the men, women and children, as colorful as you and me. Their futures are at stake. They are gathering – in numbers that many are comparing to the March on Washington – for their family members who might be working under the cover of anonymity or waiting anxiously to be the next to cross over.
Do we fit into this latest debate over who belongs where? Should more of us raise our voices to join with those who need to stop living a secret life?
There are public-relations gurus who think they know how to orchestrate the public’s attention span by putting “their” stories out there. And then there are cynics who believe that the best way to avoid bad press is to switch the spotlight.
Well, Black America, do we need a PR guru to spin this story for our gain? Keep in mind that population figures show that we aren’t THE minority anymore. Judging from letters to newspaper editors and calls to talk radio around the country, white America has long been tired of helping you with your problems, pushing instead for the “bootstrap” theory.
The reaction to immigration is different. The president wants them legally included! So what of your ghettos, your education gap, your home-ownership deficit, your income lag and the prejudice you encounter over health care? What about it? Where are the 50,000 rallying to get less money in pork and more money in affordable housing?
Our voice is muted on so many issues and the colored voice you do hear may not be saying anything you relate to. Not all black people are Democrats! And I understand my own issue. I’m just trying to make it, and sometimes I’m just too tired after dealing with DA MAN to go home and stage a protest. But if I want the community, the state and the country to treat my two black sons better than they treat me, I’d better raise my voice more often than I do right now!
I still haven’t decided our role in the immigration policy debate, but some things are clear to me. We and our Latino brothers and sisters do share some common issues with the red, white and blue. We each must still deal with inclusion and exclusion. The fact that the quality of medical treatment varies based on your ethnic background is proof-positive of the dangers of being brown in the USA.
We look different, therefore we can’t always blend. We have a different language, therefore some may view us as outsiders.
A co-worker once remarked on how my speech changes at certain times, including when I am talking to other black people. No big deal to me, but he had that “oooh, you’re so different, like a museum exhibit” look on his face. Our food, music and other aspects of our culture are different, which is okay to us, but makes us different. And being different can be the difference between getting ahead in the workplace and being subtly excluded.
All that being said, this issue is about more than just illegally crossing the border or overstaying your visa. The reality is that we can’t rid our nation of some 11 million illegal immigrants. I believe the wise man will decide how to allow them to come out of the shadows and take their rightful place in the country.
Perhaps the wise man will also look at those descendents of slaves and ask them how different their lives would be if they had the attitude of those who climbed a fence, walked across a desert or went underground to get here.