Sign-ups for Book Club! + Black Immigrant Lives Matter
Dearest community,
Eid Mubarak! How are you today? How are you living your anti-racist values?
A few important reminders:
We had a lot of questions about the meeting schedule. Our apologies if this was not clear, but meetings will be about every other week and twice for each book. You can also reference our Substack post with our meeting schedule any time, and we will continue to update both this newsletter and this post as new meetings are announced. As our first round of meetings for So you want to talk about race was halfway through July, the second round will be this upcoming week. Sign ups are below.
If you were unable to attend the last round you are absolutely still welcome in the next! And if you aren’t able to make this book work, you are still welcome to come to one or both of the following books’ meetings. We’d love to see you soon!
Along those lines, you are also welcome to invite new folks to join at any time! (we’ll even include a handy share button right here…)
Registration links! As you can see there will not be a Monday option this round, as turn out was low for that one last time, we hope we can integrate all members into bigger meetings, thus connecting them with the larger community. As always, if you need any accommodations of any kind for these meetings, please let us know.
Wednesday, August 5th from 7-8:30pm ET (4pm PT, 5pm MT, 6pm CT)
Thursday, August 6th from 7-8:30pm PT (8pm MT, 9pm CT, 10pm ET)
Sunday, August 9th from 10-11:30am PT (11am MT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET)
Phew! Okay, now if you have any remaining questions/concerns/doubts/coupons please email us and we would be happy to help out!
Black Immigrant Lives Matter
One of the most powerful conversations I feel like we had during the first sessions was around this incredibly important concept of intersectionality and the interconnectedness not only of oppressions, but also of liberations.
I mentioned to a few of the groups that one of the experiences that has demonstrated my own white privilege to me most is being a white immigrant. It has been abundantly clear in my last 2.5 years here in Chile that perceptions of me are vastly different than those of people who have moved here from other countries in the Global South, especially Afro-descendent folx and particularly Black immigrants from Haiti.
I distinctly remember standing in line at the immigration office where I was to get my passport stamped with my visa. I had a question about the process, and the woman working at the help desk spoke to me slowly and clearly, unbothered by my non-native Spanish. Shortly thereafter a Haitian couple approached her, presumably also to ask a similar question. She spoke at the speed of light, brushed them off, and called the next person in line. I’m constantly seen as a worthy or noble immigrant, while others, and again particularly Black immigrants, are seen as a burden. This has everything to do with systemic racism.
The consequences, however, are not always as “menial” as being rushed through the line at a government office. Black immigrants are suffering serious consequences from this racist system.
While I knew this was happening in my country of residence, I was blind to the fact that the very same phenomenon is happening in the United States until I saw this video and the accompanying article just last weekend. I learned:
“44% of families in immigration detention (in the US) right now are Haitian.”
Black immigrants make up 7% of the non-citizen population in the U.S but 20% of immigrants fighting deportation even though there’s no evidence of any higher crime rate.
“The longest ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) incarcerations on record are all for Black immigrants.”
African and Caribbean immigrants are 6x more likely to face solitary confinement in detention centers.
Bonds for Black immigrants are often significantly higher.
Immigrants from Haiti have the second highest asylum rejection rate (86%!) after Mexico, and the number one used to be Jamaica.
In Europe, African immigrants and refugees are facing immense violence as they seek asylum. Camps are being destroyed, physical and sexual violence is taking place. Here in Chile, Joane Florvil, a young Haitian woman, died at the hands of the police. She is not the only one. Institutionalized violence has also taken the lives of Monise Joseph, Rebeca Pierre, Joseph Henry, Jean Ricot, Louis Fritzner, Jean Claude Pierre, and too many others. Even on the island of Hispaniola, Haitians are treated with immense prejudice in the Dominican Republic and on the border. Historical events (including the US and other imperial powers’ denial of Haiti’s legitimacy) have impacts all the way to today.
This violence is intersectional. It has to do with racism, colorism, classism, imperialism, colonialism, anti-immigration sentiment, sexism, and linguistic discrimination. We cannot truly understand the issue without considering all of these systems and the ways they work together to create this particular violence.
As we talk about defunding the police and abolishing the prison-industrial complex, we must recognize how another arm of the same monster, ICE and its parallel agencies around the world, enact the same anti-Black violence upon (im)migrant people. We may be unaware of its prevalence, but that is just another way white supremacy upholds itself. We cannot fight what we don’t see. And we cannot effectively fight what we don’t understand.
So, I encourage all of us in this community to keep learning, unlearning, connecting the dots, and fighting for collective liberation.
With love and in solidarity,
Lori
This week we are…
Taking action by…
Following Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Undocublack, Raíces Texas, and Haitian Bridge for more information. Be sure to like at least 3 of their posts each so their content starts appearing in your feed. These amazing organizations are always posting ways to take action towards the world we want to see.
So much of our community is based in Colorado, so we saw it fit to give some love to the African Community Center in Denver. Please consider donating to them! (They accept in-kind donations too! This is a great way to support if monetary donations aren’t in the budget this month).
Reading…
Black Lives at the Border from Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis. This book is a short but powerful collection of essays ranging from Ferguson to Palestine and how all fights for liberation are connected. I know I’ll be reading it again and again.
Book Club Schedule: Chapters 15-17 of So you want to talk about race
Book Club Schedule: Journal entries for Days 8-11
Watching…
The video mentioned above, Black Immigrants in the U.S. It’s only about 3 minutes and is SO informative.
Listening to…
Code Switch (of course): Un-HolyLand? An Arab Muslim Reckoning With Racism. How does anti-Blackness show up everywhere, not just in “white” spaces? This podcast also made me think a lot about the work we demand of BIPOC folx.