US Immigrant Rights, State Violence and Complicity

by Kil Ja Kim
April 7, 2003

I went to a talk last week about organizing for racial justice. I came in late, so maybe the first thirty minutes of discussion focused on something other than immigrants and refugees. But the rest of the talk was totally focused on them.

During the talk, a Black man who I haven't seen at many of these events raised a point. He said that different African American friends of his have difficulty helping people of different ethnicities out because these groups only seem to come to Black people when they're in trouble. He said a lot of people will distance themselves from African Americans, even sell them out when they can. He also said many people come over and are conservative, but the minute something happens to them, they expect Black people to bail them out or stand in solidarity with them.

I looked at the crowd while he spoke. No head nods. Instead, I just saw that look. You know the look. The one where people just sit in stony silence. They look annoyed but "not surprised." They look like they're thinking, "Next, I've heard all of this before."

Then, the speaker told the man that he is brave. That's where it stayed. No one said anything in support of the man. We didn't use the man's comments as a point of discussion. Instead, his comment was just pooh-poohed. Then the speaker moved on to say that we should all work to stop what is happening to immigrants and refugees because, "It is the right thing to do!" UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: UNITY BUILDING FOR WHOM? AND WHY?

The discussion continued. The speaker called on more people. Someone talked about wanting to discuss unity. Bingo! That was the key word for the night. The other one was solidarity. The talk shifted on how to build unity. We were reminded by the speaker that the issue is now bigger than affirmative action and racial profiling. We were told that we must deal with the urgency of what is happening to immigrants and refugees. That this is now the key racial justice issue.

Rigths, Violence & Complicity2 - The Right Black Perspective