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Black and Brown Unite and Fight - STOP Contingent in Immigrant Rights March

Around 700,000 people took to the streets this May Day in Chicago, standing up for immigrants rights, for labor rights, and against racism. Amongst the crowd were members of the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP), carrying signs saying “Black and Brown United!” “We have the same issue with reparations, the American Indians have the same thing with Wounded Knee. The issue they have over there in Iraq, it’s all the same issue. The issue is the disadvantaging of people of color and poor people everywhere, it doesn’t matter what particular color it is,” said Lonnie Richardson, a member of STOP and the president of a tenant council at a large subsidized complex in the mostly African-American Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago’s south side.
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Black and Brown Unite and Fight!
Anti-gentrification activists from Chicago’s south side march for immigrant rights

By Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle

Around 700,000 people took to the streets this May Day in Chicago, standing up for immigrants rights, for labor rights, and against racism. Amongst the crowd were members of the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP), carrying signs saying “Black and Brown United!” “We have the same issue with reparations, the American Indians have the same thing with Wounded Knee. The issue they have over there in Iraq, it’s all the same issue. The issue is the disadvantaging of people of color and poor people everywhere, it doesn’t matter what particular color it is,” said Lonnie Richardson, a member of STOP and the president of a tenant council at a large subsidized complex in the mostly African-American Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago’s south side.

When the media talks about the increased diversity of this march, they mostly just mention immigrants of non-Latino nationalities. If black people are mentioned at all in coverage of one of the most significant movements since the civil rights era, it is to talk about the so-called “black/brown” divide. There is a long history of the powerful trying to keep oppressed communities divided. But there is also a long history of collaboration, from escaped slaves being harbored in Mexico to Afro-indigenous resistance in the Americas to the coalition that elected Harold Washington as Chicago’s first black mayor. With all the talk about who gets access to low-wage jobs, some may forget that issues ranging from gentrification to police brutality to failing schools to poverty wages are tearing apart both communities. That’s exactly why members of STOP took to the streets in solidarity and came back to their community to encourage others to demand the whole pie instead of fighting for the crumbs.

Angalique Rollins, 14 year old high school student in Woodlawn (on right of picture at left)
“I thought it was a great example of people working together to make something better in the world. Some people thought it wasn’t really important, but I told them it was something to really fight for because some of these people look just like your family and your friends so why wouldn’t you go support them? I heard a lot of people talking about how ok they can go and do that but if black people went down there they would get beat up, so the people in my neighborhood weren’t that positive but I think it is a great thing to go fight for. Some people looked surprised that there were black people out there but they looked like they were happy that we were there. I think that building coalitions is really great, this city and the world needs different races to come together.”

Wardell Lavender, 65 year old Woodlawn activist:
“The march was beautiful, everybody marched like soldiers for the struggle for all peoples. We have to do it that way, together as one. The African-Americans and Latinos need to march side by side. This might give people in our community an initiative to unite just like the Latinos, so we can show force in numbers. People sometimes say that ‘they’re just coming to take our jobs, they should stay in their country,’ but some people begin to understand that people from all over the world are being displaced and need to look for a country that can offer a job, something so they can take care of their family, where there’s opportunity they go. It was nice at the march seeing all the different ethnic groups, some of the people were from Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, it was a nice flower pot of people. I enjoyed that march, I hadn’t been in one in years. Everyone was so friendly to one another and to our little group as we were marching, talking and exchanging ideas. I think it was nice to integrate a group of people from Woodlawn into this massive march.”

Della Moran, 25 year old organizer with STOP
“I think the march was good, there was not as much representation of black people as I would have liked to see, if the communities unite then we can really get some changes made. It makes me wonder who is doing the outreach in the black communities on this issue, we brought a contingent from Woodlawn but I would have liked to see more black communities there in solidarity. I overheard a conversation at a restaurant in Woodlawn about how ‘these immigrants come here illegally and now they want to complain about the wages they get paid.’ That is just a sign that there is a lack of understanding but also a lack of education around immigrant rights and global issues like why immigrants are migrating and what globalization has to do with this and how it affects all workers and poor people. We should have had half a million black people out there too.”

Lonnie Richardson, 66 year old tenant council president, beat facilitator, activist
“I was glad to be a part of this. The experience I had seeing the different nationalities of people, that’s one of the greatest experiences I’ve had. It gave a lot of energy being there as a group, we learned how to shout slogans in Spanish, and being there with our kids I learned a lot and was impressed with how much they learned. The immigrants being used as cheap labor takes me back to how this country was built on our backs as black people through slavery. The government’s been on the backs of people of color and it’s about time we demonstrate that we’re all tired of it. The United States is the ones who should be on trial. I think that the ones who are here who are illegal, well they have to legalize them. Saying ‘these people are coming to get our jobs’ is a way of avoiding the issue. I might have thought that way at one time myself, but being in this march and seeing all the people out there, legal and illegal, I don’t see it that way. Everybody should have an opportunity. The real issue is that this is slave labor. I think it’s unfair for you to be used as slave labor just cause you came across illegal. Immigrants have come here and been exploited from all over. We were brought over here by force, and there still are forms of slave labor, even with blacks, look at all the prison labor, that’s a form of slave labor, of cheap labor. We got a border right here in the United States with the blacks, especially the black young men. They set them up with no jobs, no good education, not enough social services, then they do something to survive and wind up as prison labor, just like the Latinos, who do something to survive and end up as slave labor. What I would like to see is for the Latinos to support us also in the demand for reparations. I think that could happen if some of the black people who are for reparations get with the groups that we are in touch with on this issue. That would be amazing. What I really got out of it is that what we are doing in our neighborhoods, we can do it, if we unite. This sends a big signal, not only here in Chicago but across the country. The amazing thing about it was that this was going on all over the place.”

Ebonee Stevenson, 24 year old STOP organizer
“This was one of the most kick-ass events I have participated in in my whole life. It’s hard when you work in one individual organization in one small little community but when you see people from all over come together for a common cause it’s just great to know that you’re not alone in the fight. I wanted to see more black organizations out there supporting the movement. The whole black/brown divide is ridiculous because we’re all in the common fight against the oppressors. You know how most black groups say that we are here to fight the oppressors, well these people trying to pass these laws are the oppressors. It was ridiculous how much positive response I got for being out there, people wanting to grab my hand and shake it cause they were so happy to see black people out there supporting it. The idea that Mexicans are just coming to get our jobs is an idea put in our head s by corporate America so that we don’t get together. They want to keep our communities divided; it’s in their best interest. They’re coming here just how ex-slaves came from the south to the north, looking for a better life for their family. It’s not their fault that corporate America is taking advantage of them and laying off black people and then giving them these low wages. It’s not them doing it, you should be mad at corporate America cause they’re the ones doing this to both of us. How much better would it be if we could unite and demand that everybody gets a fair wage?”
 
 

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