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Black Lives Matter at Work

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50<br />

FROM AL TO LA:<br />

BLACK IMMIGRANTS’ LIVES MATTER<br />

<strong>Black</strong> Immigrants’ <strong>Lives</strong> <strong>M<strong>at</strong>ter</strong><br />

Marybeth Onyeukwu, ONE DC, <strong>Black</strong> Immigr<strong>at</strong>ion Network<br />

“<strong>Black</strong> Immigrants' <strong>Lives</strong> <strong>M<strong>at</strong>ter</strong>: Disrupting the Dialogue on Immigrant<br />

Detention,” Truthout<br />

I wrote this piece as an intervention in the developing discourse around<br />

immigr<strong>at</strong>ion. Although <strong>Black</strong> <strong>Lives</strong> <strong>M<strong>at</strong>ter</strong> was forcing many within the<br />

immigrant rights spaces to take a closer look <strong>at</strong> problem<strong>at</strong>ic organizing<br />

str<strong>at</strong>egies, the same anti-<strong>Black</strong> logic was informing the response. For<br />

years, <strong>Black</strong> immigrants have been been <strong>at</strong> the margins of the<br />

immigr<strong>at</strong>ion narr<strong>at</strong>ive. In the struggle for <strong>Black</strong> liber<strong>at</strong>ion, it is critical for<br />

their stories to be <strong>at</strong> the forefront.<br />

Yves Gomes, Silver Spring, MD<br />

“Immigrant Organizers and the Baltimore Protests: A Call for Solidarity<br />

and Critical Thought,” #not1more<br />

I wrote this piece out of frustr<strong>at</strong>ion towards fellow undocumented peers<br />

who were condescending and indifferent to <strong>Black</strong> acts of resistance in<br />

Baltimore following the de<strong>at</strong>h of Mr. Freddie Gray. <strong>Black</strong> youth in<br />

Baltimore City did more work than most undocumented youth in our<br />

st<strong>at</strong>e in advoc<strong>at</strong>ing for our Maryland st<strong>at</strong>e Dream Act legisl<strong>at</strong>ion in the<br />

2012 referendum. They challenged their own community's mediaenforced<br />

stereotypes and misinform<strong>at</strong>ion on undocumented people, so I<br />

call our community to do the same—to challenge anti-<strong>Black</strong>ness. At the<br />

very least, we can do this by educ<strong>at</strong>ing ourselves on the history of <strong>Black</strong><br />

struggle in this country and uplifting the voices of our fellow<br />

undocumented <strong>Black</strong> brothers and sisters, who are brutalized by both<br />

mass incarcer<strong>at</strong>ion and mass detention.

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