Ways to turn the wheels of change
by Attica Scott
"To those who believe the battle against discrimination has been won, I say, look at the realities of paychecks and power."
—Linda Chavez-Thompson, 1997
Yo, no soy en espanol. This sentence is bad, but it's an example of the language many people are hurrying to learn as we seek to embrace the growing Latino community in East Tennessee.
Along with this newfound attention comes many challenges. I am speaking from my experiences as a person of color about the cycles of oppression I hope Latinos can avoid.
The cycles of oppression have many spokes in their wheels, but I will highlight only three: tokenism, political action, and economics. Tokenism is so acceptable that it is sometimes unnoticeable. Even those of us who mean well will fall into the trap of trying to identify a handful of leaders from hundreds and thousands of individuals from any given group.
Others have tried to pick those individuals whom they think speak for our people. Often, the people who are deemed our leaders are individuals who will not question the systems and institutions that exist in our community. They may not have any relationship with poor people and the young folks hanging out on the street corner in search of direction.
You will find that during this season known as Hispanic Heritage Month, people will jump on your bandwagon and wear you out with presentations and speaking engagements. My wish for you is that your month is not the only time your contributions to our community and country will be heralded.
The second spoke in this wheel is political participation. Your community can be used by political candidates who only want your vote. But once elected, they have no use for you. How can you avoid this? You must keep our politicians mindful of your issues and concerns.
The third spoke in the wheel is economics. Here's an African American perspective of what may happen to your community: Organizations—such as city and county governments, nonprofits, and educational institutions—will use your demographics for their own financial pursuits. A nonprofit organization might write a grant proposal to provide mentoring to Latino youth. The nonprofit will receive the grant because of the statistics used to cite the depressing economic and educational situation of this particular group. The grant will offset the salaries of some of the staff, will offset some of the overhead costs, and will provide for the purchasing of some materials for the mentoring program. Sounds great, doesn't it?
Unfortunately, no one from the Latino community will have been consulted during preparation of the proposal; there is probably no Latino on the staff; there may not even be an interest among the youth for such a program.
What can you do to make sure that this does not happen? You must become empowered through self-awareness and collective action and by creating a community of resistance. Stay strong as a group because Latinos are a community of people just like African Americans are a community of people.
Resist the push to conform to some unrealistic notion of what and who you are supposed to be. You will find examples in our community every day of African Americans who dress and wear their hair in ways that represent their African heritage and culture. You are part of the communities of color that exist in East Tennessee, and we embrace you. Call on us as your allies when you need us. We will not try to speak for you or represent you, because that is not what an ally does. It means that we will continue to share our experiences in the hopes that you can use them to your benefit.
In solidaridad...
September 26, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 39
© 2002 Metro Pulse
| 
