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You must read Erin Aubry Kaplan's every article

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 24, 2006 - 8:22am.
on

Seriously. There will be a test later.

Many blacks also feel as if they've been pushed out of jobs that then go to Latino immigrants. But what's too often overlooked is that the immigrants didn't do the pushing, the employers did.

For many employers, illegal immigration is a double winner. They get to hire cheap labor, and they don't have to hire blacks, whom they were loath to hire in the first place. It's true that there aren't many black parking valets or hotel maids anymore. But thanks to racist American labor practices, they never had a foothold in the better-paying trades — carpentry, plumbing and electrical work — that Latinos now dominate.

Blacks and Latinos took to the streets in the 1992 riots, which were sparked by a sense of injustice and a lack of ownership in South L.A. But when the smoke cleared and there was a need for community rebuilding, it was Latinos who benefited more from the construction boom. Blacks made some attempts to ensure equal participation, with little success. The bitterness of that experience lingers.

In the documentary "The New L.A.," a narrator describes how, until the mid-1980s or so, most of the janitors working in Century City and downtown were African American. As immigration peaked, many of those janitors were fired and replaced by Latinos willing to work for half the pay and fewer benefits. The narrator only mentions this as a prelude to a discussion of the Justice for Janitors movement, the triumphant union organizing campaign that inaugurated Latino civic involvement.

Everyone wants justice for janitors, of course, including me. But I was left asking: What happened to all those black janitors? What about that justice? It's a question that has few takers.

None of this negates the real things black and brown folks have in common, or the need for unity. (In fact, it makes that need much clearer.) But before coming together, we have to look unflinchingly at the forces keeping us apart.  

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I read Erin Aubry Kaplan's
Submitted by ptcruiser on May 24, 2006 - 6:28pm.
I read Erin Aubry Kaplan's column every week and I'm glad to see that you giving her a plug at your site. I believe that she is largely right about what native blacks and Latino immigrants have in common but an exposition of those commonalities will not prevent or discourage Latinos from filling jobs offered by employers who they know are intentionally discriminating against prospective black employees. This won't happen and these same immigrants will not join ranks with blacks to prevent or penalize these employers. Given the history of this country, I have no reason to be optimistic.
I think coalition, not
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 25, 2006 - 12:17am.
I think coalition, not alliance. Compete completely when our interests conflict, work together then they coincide.
If our interests don't
Submitted by ptcruiser on May 25, 2006 - 11:39am.
If our interests don't coincide when an employer wants to take bread out of my mouth because of the color of my skin then I have a hard time understanding when and over what our interests might coincide. 
They coincide in
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 25, 2006 - 12:16pm.

They coincide in establishing rules and methods of enforcement. 

I understand if survival issues override all that. If you've got genuine survival issues, they should...they must. But most of us are in a little better position than that.

No, I disagree. Our
Submitted by ptcruiser on May 25, 2006 - 11:33pm.

No, I disagree. Our interests don't coincide in establishing rules and methods of enforcement. In theory they may but not in practice. If Latinos are being given jobs partially as a result of employers being unwilling to hire blacks, why would they sacrifice their spot in the line to stand in solidarity with folks who are unemployed? 

 

If Latinos are being given
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 26, 2006 - 5:01am.

If Latinos are being given jobs partially as a result of employers being unwilling to hire blacks,

How is that the fault of Latinos?

why would they sacrifice their spot in the line to stand in solidarity with folks who are unemployed?

It that's your criterion, you'll find no coalition partners.

How is this the fault of
Submitted by ptcruiser on May 26, 2006 - 12:56pm.

How is this the fault of Latinos?
Who wrote or said anything about "fault ofLatinos"? The issue under discussion here, or so I thought, was Ms. Kaplan's call for some recognition on the part of blacks and Latinos of their shared commonalities and differences. I believe that these differences will trump any commonalities.

Then let me rephrase.If
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 26, 2006 - 1:01pm.

Then let me rephrase.

If Latinos are being given jobs partially as a result of employers being unwilling to hire blacks,

Why does the actions of racist employers make you unable or unwilling to ally with Latinos in unrelated matters?

Hoping you don't find the comparison too offensive, but it's a whole lot like the white small farmers that were ruined by slavery and the plantation system blaming the slaves instead of the land owners.

I don't find the analogy
Submitted by ptcruiser on May 26, 2006 - 4:46pm.

I don't find the analogy offensive. We're just trying to make sense here of an extremely complicated problem. I don't find the analogy helpful but I don't find it offensive either. 

It is not the actions of racist employers alone that poses diffculties in forming alliances or coalitions between Latinos and blacks. It is the actions of racist employers in combination with the predictable response of those who are treated in a less racist (or class biased) way that creates the problem. There has almost never been a time, save for a brief period in California and in New York City begininng in the late 1960s and ending by the late 1970s, when Latinos demonstrated any willingness to join ranks with their black brothers and sisters and fight together for social justice.

I never declared that such a coalition or alliance was not a desireable goal. The reality is that it is not attainable in this current political, social and economic environment. The bodies of African Americans form the roadway that others have used to challenge the existing order of things in this country. When I begin to see more than black bodies in that mix I'll shut my mouth and join the other protestors and activists. Until that time though...

 

I never declared that such a
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 26, 2006 - 6:28pm.
I never declared that such a coalition or alliance was not a desireable goal. The reality is that it is not attainable in this current political, social and economic environment.
Okay.