This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Accomplices to Injustice

The fight for justice continues only because we allow it. We, among us Black and Brown people, are accomplices, and we know it. And to end the injustices would translate to many of us not having other ways to fill our not-for-profit budgets.  

The Trayvon case exemplifies the anti-Black sentiment that Latinos have for Blacks. A Latino killing a Black with words and thoughts is too common among us. In fact, it is more common than not.  

Throughout my 35-year tenure in this County I have given written and verbal testimony of anti-Latino sentiments from Blacks. I speak without opinion..."Been there and done that" excludes opinionated comments. In fact, my commitment to ending these historical dysfunctions has been so strong that my oldest child acquired her Masters and Ph.D. from Hunter School of Social Work with an expertise on what it is to be a woman of color. She is now a professor, consultant, advocate and author of many articles on the topic of "colorism".  

These dysfunctional capitalistic and colonial ideals are extremely evident, again, by a close examination of not-for-profits structures and mind-sets that have silenced or softened advocacy. Many Community Based Organizations (CBOs) are as dysfunctional and colonial loving institutions as Wall Street's for-profits. Every dollar that comes out of our pockets to buy a product or fund a CBO justifies a social issue, no matter how devious that agenda could be. Ask questions and do self audits prior to "giving" or "buying". It's a matter of the "Ballot or the Bullet".  

My next court date is July 25 in the Village of Mamaroneck. You should know that on that date I walked out of my house to sit in my car, parked 15 feet in front of my house, to listen to Boleros (Spanish musical poetry) with my hoodie on (very visible) and a Puerto Rican tee shirt over me. Seconds later I was arrested without cause. In fact, I walked away from our brutal argument prior to being arrested and was "pulled" back which then continued the argument and then subsequently arrested. Their agenda was satisfied.  

Not a coincidence that 1 month prior to my arrest I was trying to boycott a restaurant (Harbor Bar) on Boston Post road for not paying Latinos who did reconstruction work during winter months. I do justice things like that often, mostly against school districts known for putting us into special ed programs and community colleges and out of AP courses, as many of you know.  

The police officer that approached me was directed to "ID him". Big mistake on the Villages part for following those type of orders. Iwas not asked for my name or address, just told that I told "suspicious" and "why am I near a school?". The rest is history, hundreds of years of history. This occurred on February 14th, 2013 in the same way and mentality we have been trying to combat for centuries.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?