Civil rights fight - how are we talking about this?

Saturday, October 5th marked the National Day of Dignity and Respect in the fight for a Comprehension Immigration Reform. There were over 165 actions, marches, and rallies in 40 cities across the country as part of FIRM’s (Fair Immigration Reform Movement) month of actions. Tuesday’s action in Washington, D.C. marked the end of the actions with a massive rally.

At last week’s action Jackson, TN for the National Day of Dignity and Respect, the Jackson Branch NAACP president, Harrell Carter, made a direct connection between a Comprehensive Immigration Reform that is fair, humane, and keeps families together by calling it a civil right. When the floor was open to the public, Floyd (Workers United member from Memphis) told his story of how he, like many immigrants that 'fit the profile,' is also profiled. As a Black man, Floyd feels that driving a nice sports car is a crime. He shared how he can relate and understands how immigrants are profiled. In "Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities," Mary C. Water calls immigrants the new 'black Americans' (152). However, seeing immigrants as the “black American” may mean something different to Waters than what Floyd may have meant. I may be wrong, but I get the feeling that Waters blames puts the blame of individual failure on “cultural behaviors” and does not fully recognize the institutionalized racial inequalities that Floyd shared in his experience. Of course, I can only speak of what I interpreted from his testimony, and do not claim to fully understand Floyd’s experience.

I am curious as to what the class thinks about this usage of civil rights fight on a current fight for justice. Though conversations with black organizers, I’ve realized that there are so many ties to the struggles of African Americans and it is not my intention to belittle these personal stories and events in history, but should the term of civil rights be limited to a period in history? We’ve seen groups such as the LGBTQ community and allies use the term ‘civil rights’, so can we restrict the use of these two words to one fight for justice? How can we honor the history of this term in future usage? Should we not use it?



http://octoberimmigration.org
https://actionnetwork.org/campaigns/october-5-national-day-of-dignity-and-respect
http://action.seiu.org/page/s/october-5-march-for-immigrant-dignity-and-respect