Comment on Black/Brown Relations: An Unnessesary Conflict

Somehow in the past one hundred years of history we forgot how to get along with diversity, this text by Roberto Rodriguez and Patrisia Gonzales is about the rupture of a likewise community living amongst minorities, Latinos and African Americans; both share history of discrimination and segregation, they share a common ground in thought, yet they can’t get along easily. While Africans where brought to the American continent to be slaves, Mexicans as well as other northern American tribes where being disposed of their roots and beliefs, their women raped and their children killed, all sorts of dreadful acts held against these people, why can’t we all see that we come from a similar background, and that actions against minorities have always existed? What is the difference between Blacks and Latinos? In deed none. Both struggle to be recognized not as minorities but as legitimate citizens. In a country where freedom is waved like it’s own flag over piping glory, how can they minimize people to a state of object and inferior race? It makes no sense, “The key to surviving and thriving in a diverse society such as ours is to emphasize what we all have in common, not what divides us” (Dorothy Butler Gilliam cited by Rodriguez R., and Patricia G., in Multi America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace, p. 255)  we have always lived together in the same place Latinos, Blacks, Whites, Asians, but it was not until people started traveling to other places that we became aware that we are not all alike, that we have different shapes and ways of thought. Migration is another issue that rumbles around once in a while, but it is illegal immigration that steals all attention, the star of the century. The necessity to search for the best in life to fill in the missing parts in us, the all “American Dream” is called now, people run away from political oppression, or simply the look for a better way of life for our love ones. Getting out one and coming in to another, and once in, sometimes it feels like you never left home, what a waste. Whatever conflicts we face because of racism or other differences just goes to show that we are less and less capable of looking to another’s eyes and say “Hey, I know how you feel”. I think that one day empathy will be a word to remember and not an action, “it is absolutely necessary to have an alliance […] if there’s ever going to be change” (Gil Gonzalez cited by Rodriguez R., and Patricia G., in Multi America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace, p. 254), we just have to remember where we came from.

Reference:

Book Title: Multi America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace

Author: Ishmael Reed ( compilator)