Women & Migration - Building Bridges Between Black and Brown Communities

BAJI, The Latina Center, Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), the City of Richmond Human Rights/Human Relations Commission, and the Neighborhood House of North Richmond are collaborating to organize a series of dialogues to address the tensions that exist between the Black and Latino communities. The first session called “Building Bridges Between Black and Brown Communities” took place on June 25.  The second gathering was held on October 29.  Building Bridges is a safe space for the healing and empowerment of women as agents of social change in their communities.

You can read the Richmond Progressive Alliance’s account of the June 25 gathering at: http://www.richmondprogressivealliance.net/Issues/OneRichmond.html#BBD-June11

BAJI Statement - In Support of Occupy Oakland and Occupy Wall Street

Statement of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration

In Support of Occupy Oakland and Occupy Wall Street

The world spotlight is on Oakland, California, a city that has historically been recognized for its strong resistance to injustice.  From the Black Panther Party, to the Bay Area Free South Africa Movement, to the Justice for Oscar Grant Committee, the people of Oakland and the Bay Area have stood on the right side of history time and time again.  Today, as the Occupy Oakland movement brings international attention to our city, the social justice movement continues to be led by grassroots communities who have stood their ground against economic exploitation and police brutality. 

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), as an organization founded on racial equity, immigrant rights and economic justice, categorically condemns the forced removal of and police brutality perpetrated against Occupy Oakland activists. The Administration of Mayor Jean Quan, the first female Asian mayor of a major city in the U.S., elected with support from the diverse progressive movement, has failed the people of Oakland. 

We support the Occupy Oakland movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement’s demand for economic justice and endorse the occupation of public spaces to call attention to the gross inequalities in U.S. society.  We condemn not only the growing national income inequality but also the racial inequality that leaves black and brown communities in persistent poverty, with at least twice the unemployment rate as the general population.  We denounce the scapegoating of African Americans, Latinos and immigrants of color, who make up a disproportionate share of the 99% living in poverty, for the economic crisis caused by the banks and Wall Street.

We call upon the City of Oakland to cease all actions against the occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza (Frank Ogawa Plaza) as they use the public space to exercise their rights of free speech and expression.  We urge the Oakland Police rank and file to resist following orders that perpetrate brutality and force against peaceful protesters.

We call upon progressive individuals and organizations, Labor unions and labor organizations, churches, synagogues and mosques, and all peace loving people to keep the pressure up.  Occupy Everywhere!

Occupy Wall Street!

Occupy the banks—Wells Fargo, Bank of America, CitiBank and other financial institutions—to demand the end to home foreclosures and investments in immigrant detention centers.  Boycott the Banks!

Occupy Washington!

March on Washington and occupy Congress to demand a public works program that creates living wage jobs to repair our crumbling infrastructure and transform our oil-dependent economy to a green economy.  Demand that Washington tax the rich, restore the social safety net, and regulate financial institutions and big corporations.

Occupy Oakland and all U.S. cities!

Demand that local and state governments stop the cutbacks in services and education and tax the rich to pay for them. Demand an end to attacks on Occupy Wall Street movement and the end to police brutality.  Support and encourage the economic localization movement that disconnects the stranglehold that the Central Bank and predatory global capitalism has on our communities.  Support municipal ID cards that will better integrate undocumented immigrants into Oakland’s diverse community and will benefit small businesses through a local e-currency that circulates the earnings of a city’s residents within the city without any portion being siphoned off by the national corporations and the big banks. 

BAJI heads to Georgia!

Post by Opal Tometi, BAJI National Organizer

This summer was tumultuous for the migrant justice movement. As BAJI and allies across the nation took note and organized against a myriad of anti-immigrant legislation, policies and other attacks to racial justice and gains of the civil rights struggle – we realized that states in the south were under specific attack.

Georgia – historically important city for many reasons including its prominence in the civil rights movement and contemporary politics was a glaring flag for BAJI staff and members.  We knew instinctively that when HB 87 passed in Georgia that we must respond.

And so we did – sending 2 of our staff members to Georgia. BAJI Senior Organizer, Phil Hutchings, a veteran of the civil rights movement, SNCC and actively involved in several cutting edge human rights movements and me, Opal Tometi, a Nigerian born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona who has been active in the migrant rights struggle and stop-violence against women movement for years.

We are grateful to have connected with several phenomenal individuals and organizations that are doing tremendous work in Georgia. Some who have been established for decades and others more recently formed. We know that we didn’t know everything, but found that there are several who are working diligently to find solutions to Georgia’s most pressing human rights infractions and social ills.

Of note we found people organizing for justice for immigrants, people who were concerned about re-districting which if done incorrectly/immorally will further disenfranchise communities of color. This is of grave importance to note because Georgia is en route to becoming a majority ‘people of color’ state. The demographics are shifting and there are those in power who have taken note and are working to ensure their power.

The migrant justice groups we met with were recently working on fighting the deportation of a South African man who if deported may face death from opposition forces in South Africa, others had been fighting a federal program called “Secure Communities” which is in fact a misnomer and essentially encourages racial profiling and makes local police share fingerprints with national immigration irrespective of the reason someone Is incarcerated. Other elected officials and civil rights groups were grappling with the fact that some state officials were calling for parolees to take the unfilled jobs in fields that that were usually held by migrant day laborers.

We plan to go back to Georgia and continue to learn, build relationships, and assist in racial justice and immigrant rights organizing efforts. We’ll be sure to keep our friends and allies posted as we continue to build in the South.

Black Belt Power: African-Americans come back South, change political landscape

Original post by Institute for Southern Studies

Much of the media buzz about the 2010 Census has focused on the role of Latinos and new immigrants in changing the face of the country.

It makes sense: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about half of the nation's growth over the last decade was driven by growth in the Latino community, much of it in Southern states.
But equally influential in the South's rapidly-changing demographics is another story with a longer historical arc: The return of many African-Americans to Southern states after a decades-long exodus during the Jim Crow era.

The Great Migration of some 6 million African-Americans from the South from between World War I and 1970 is one of the most significant demographic upheavals in U.S. history. According to author Isabel Wilkerson, at the turn of the century 90 percent of all African-Americans were living in the South. By the end of the Great Migration, nearly half were living outside the South, mostly in the cities of the North and West.

The civil rights movement didn't end racism, of course, but it did change the South enough to entice many African-Americans to come back, igniting a reverse migration movement that continues to gain steam.

The result: According to the U.S. Census, the South's share of the black population -- 57 percent -- is now the highest it's been since 1960.* That's still less than the 90 percent mark before the Great Migration, but as the New York Times reported earlier this year, it's a dramatic change:
During the turbulent 1960s, black population growth ground to a halt in the South, and Southern states claimed less than 10 percent of the national increase then. The South has increasingly claimed a greater share of black population growth since -- about half the country's total in the 1970s, two-thirds in the 1990s and three-quarters in the decade that just ended.

The shift could significantly strengthen the political power of African-Americans in the South, especially in the historic Black Belt stretching from the mid-Atlantic to east Texas. Here's a map showing where the South's growing African-American communities are concentrated, according to the latest Census data:

A glimpse of the political force this represents was a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2008/11/a-new-south-rising.html">seen in 2008, when record-breaking African-American turnout helped push Florida, North Carolina and Virginia into blue territory.
It's also seen in Georgia, the epicenter of the Black Belt, where the African-American community grew by more than 579,000 since 2000 -- the leading ingredient in making it the seventh-fastest growing state in the country.

The 2010 Census also offers a glimpse of how Southern African-American communities are changing. Atlanta echoes a trend found across the South and country, where suburban black neighborhoods are growing at the expense of the urban core. The New York Times notes that "just 2 percent of the black population growth in the last decade occurred in counties that have traditionally been black population centers."

African-Americans moving South also tend to be young: 40 percent of those moving to Southern states in the 2010 Census count were ages 21 to 40. Meaning that the political force of the latest phase of African-American reverse-migration South will be felt for years to come.

* The U.S. Census definition of "the South" includes Alabama, Arkansas, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The Institute for Southern Studies typically does not include DC, DE, MD and OK in its definition.

Watch the new Restore Fairness documentary, “Checkpoint Nation? Building Community Across Borders”

Originally posted by Restore Fairness Blog

Early one morning, Maria—then nine months pregnant—and her family were stopped by the police for no discernible reason. A special breakfast outing became a nightmare—and at one of the most intimate moments of her life, Maria found a team of immigration agents—not her husband—by her side.
Maria’s chilling story, which Breakthrough captured on a trip to the Mexico/Arizona border, is the centerpiece of “Checkpoint Nation? Building Community Across Borders,” a powerful new documentary that depicts the reality of post-9/11 racial profiling — as mandated by laws such as SB 1070 in Arizona, which are now being imitated and implemented nationwide — along with the new and strengthening alliances of diverse groups committed to racial justice.
Set in the U.S./Mexico border area near Tucson, Arizona, a region that sees more and more migrant deaths every year, the video explores the idea that the way to move forward is to find connections and build coalitions among between diverse groups of allies — including Muslim-, South Asian-, African-, and Latino-Americans; civil rights lawyers and media activists — that have identified with each other’s histories and united in the common goals of justice, equality, and respect for all.
“Checkpoint Nation?” was produced to complement the release of  a new report and Week of Action around the 10th anniversary of September 11th spearheaded by Rights Working Group, a  national coalition of more than 300 civil liberties, national security, immigrant rights and human rights organizations committed to restoring due process and human rights protections that have been eroded in the name of national security. The report, “Reclaiming Our Rights: Reflections on Racial Profiling in a Post-9/11 America,” will be released September 14th.
The groups that are featured in the video are ACLU of Arizona, Alliance for Educational Justice, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Derechos Humanos, DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), Funding Exchange, VAMOS Unidos
Denying fairness and justice to some puts all of our freedoms at risk. Ten years after September 11th, we must challenge ourselves to unite across our differences and reaffirm the real American values of pluralism, democracy, and dignity for all.
Watch the video and take action to stop racial profiling in your community.