Beyond Friends or Foes: Latinos and African Americans
Posted on VidaAfroLatina.com on October 22, 2008

African Americans and Latinos—friends, foes, or anything at all? According to news media, socio-political differences exist, and violent clashes are common. It is imperative that we lend all of our senses to the positive picture that the media rarely exposes—the shared histories and experiences of Latinos and African Americans.

With the political climate escalating as the election nears, people are asking, “Who will Latinos vote for?” Even after we choose a president, it’s crucial to be as responsible as we are in the voting booth in our neighborhoods our everyday to raise questions and devise solutions that promote community. We must recognize and respect each other’s history, culture and daily experiences.

The good news is that folk are coming together to inform us about our points of unity.

Afro-Americans and Latinos: We Have More in Common than You Think was the name of a Wayne State University event presented by the student organization El Club Hispano. Students at Wayne State University have been promoting positive African-American and Latino relationships by bringing theater productions to the university such as “Yo Soy Latina!” and “Platano and Collard Greens.” In September, Sigma Lambda Beta Fraternity brought Young Lords co-founder, community activist, poet and award-winning lecturer Felipe Luciano to the university to speak about bridging ties.

Luciano is a Black Puerto Rican from New York. He spoke with the charisma and eloquence often exhibited in Latino and Black American culture. His speech was colorful as his words danced between Spanish, English and the slang of both tongues. He reminded the audience that education is crucial to activism and vice versa. One cannot have a true revolution of thought and practice without being informed, he explained.

Luciano sent personal messages to Blacks and Latinos. He urged African Americans to study more than just African-American history and to reject what he called, Afro-saxonism. He urged Latinos to stop denying the African history that permeates Latin American culture, music and bloodline. (¿Y tu abuela, dónde está?) He insisted that both communities reject “self-hatred and antipathy of oneself.” Not only did he promote African-American and Latino unity, he let the audience know that we’re all mixed with something, like it or not.

These events show the similarities between African Americans and Latinos. And even in our differences, we still have more in common than we think. As El Club Hispano president, Naomi Ruth, tells it, “It is quite simple to see the similarities between Latinos and African Americans, such as incarceration rates and the quality of our neighborhoods. . . but breaking down myths and stereotypes is 10 times more difficult. The call is necessary to raise awareness in hopes of building bridges…we have more in common than you think, so think about it, research it, embrace it and take action.”

Yes, the call is necessary—so much so that we should look not only at racial and ethnic relations here in the United States, but also abroad. In this global economy, we have no choice but to gaze outside of ourselves and into our shared histories.

Bobbi Negron, Puerto Rican artist and Wayne State University alumna, exhibited four paintings called “Interrogation Room” during a Club Hispano event.

“I used the theme to help me come up with some things that Latinos and Blacks experience, and I came up with colonialism. Nations in Africa and Spanish-speaking nations have felt the blow of colonialism, either by being forced to take up the culture and religion of imperial powers or by their language being stripped away so people are forced to used the imperial languages, like French for people in Algeria and Senegal, and Spanish for countries like Mexico, and finally English for nations like Puerto Rico,” she said.