We can all get along
Re “A call for unity, not hate,” Column, June 16
Bravo. Your column about our debt to the African American community, with the historical background you provided, was a wake-up call to all Latinos to acknowledge this group’s contributions to our own social development in this wonderful country.
But I wonder whether most of the people who need to know these facts read or care? Many first-generation Latinos feel more allegiance to their hometowns and ignore their neighborhoods, while African Americans continue to provide leadership in our communities, creating programs that often benefit the Latino residents more than themselves.
Hector E. Morales
Los Angeles
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I am a gay white man who, as a child, shouted “huelga,” or “strike,” from the edge of lettuce fields in San Jose and attended summer camp with dozens of kids from inner-city Oakland.
I implore those of us who continue to fall under the ax of entrenched discrimination to embrace each other under the umbrella of our shared struggle. We are all in this together: black, brown, gay, straight.
Matthew Watkins
Long Beach
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I couldn’t agree more with Hector Tobar in his calling for unity, not hate, between the black and brown communities of Los Angeles. And I agree that many of the advances of Latinos in this country have come out of the struggles of African Americans in the ‘60s.
But you did not go far enough. You did not call for the white folks of Los Angeles to also press for unity. Most of us also benefited greatly from the civil rights movement.
It was the beginning of dismantling the scourge of discrimination against anyone who was not white, young, healthy, male, Protestant and straight.
Lynn Kessler
Sherman Oaks
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I am an Indian American who came here as a graduate student 50 years ago. After finishing my studies, I thought of staying on to work. The system for immigration was then quite racist; India and China each had an annual quota of 100.
With the growth of the civil rights movement, I could sense a change in the atmosphere. Although the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was not aiming to reduce the barriers to would-be immigrants like myself, I am convinced that the social change he brought about led to a dramatic overhaul of immigration policy.
Dilip Adarkar
Manhattan Beach