11 April 2006

What am I missing, here?

With all the national hype over immigration and all the protests and demonstrations from coast to coast I've been watching things and feeling like I'm missing something.

I didn't know what I was missing, but I assumed it would come to me. Then I looked at the front of the newspaper on Tuesday morning and I saw it. Right there, plain as day. A young Latino man was holding a banner that read:

"TODAY WE MARCH. TOMORROW WE VOTE."

I work near the Mall in DC, so I was able to see first hand hundreds of thousands of Hispanic and Latino demonstrators coming together for one cause. How I feel about that cause isn't an issue right now, I'll touch on it in another blog - but what I saw was a glipse at the future powerbase in America.

We Blacks had better come together and begin to unite and focus on what role we want to play in the future of this country. We have gone from the number one minority to the number two minority, behind Latinos. They are steadily growing in numbers and so are we. But our numbers are largely growing in single parent homes and theirs are growing in more nuclear structured settings. In the long run, our disadvantaged children will be competing and losing economically and politically to their children.

Depending on how this whole immigration thing works out, the Latino presence in this country is going to be a significant force to deal with, poloitically, economically and socially. There have been dozens of demonstartions bringing out hundreds of thousands of people of all ages, all for one cause. We as Black people have to find a way to rally our masses to create our own agenda for the next 100 years in this country. I deeply worry that not enough of us care enough or are intelligent enough to see that this nation is on the dawn of some very significant changes. If we don't start moving to unite - then we will be divided. Once we are divided, we will then be defeated.

-The Thinking Black Man

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why can't all minorities come together and work for each other? That's why the poor and working class haven't been able to get anywhere EVER...we're too busy allowing ourselves to be split into groups than coming together and allowing the power of our numbers to work for us. And that's why all over the world people of color are suffering while white people continue to control most of the governments and markets...just look at Africa.

CDM
PS- There are a lot of Black Latinos in this country.