The Stonewall riots were manifestations of communal resistance against, against a violent police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The Latin American and Caribbean Community Center stands in solidarity with communities that continue to resist injustice and discrimination.
Immigration is not always seen through a multiple identity lens in the United States, which is dangerous because it makes many of our multiple identities invisible, and through the lens of white supremacy it obscures and silences our idiosyncrasies and individual perspectives.
There are several lessons that I think we can apply from stonewall, as it relates to immigration, the first one is that as people of color in the United States- African descendents and Indigenous struggles for civil rights continue to prove, that mechanisms of legislation and litigation are not enough to bring the change and transformation that as a society we need, in regards to the LGBTQ victories for example can be eroded by sweeping federal acts such as the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996.
Something else to be taken into consideration, and this is with all struggles, is that it cannot be dependent on a few people, when we look at immigrant rights and the self elected spokes persons, do they use a race and gender lens in their arguments and comments? How are we holding them accountable? When we hear the ‘traditional’ LGBTQ speakers, how often do they use a race analysis and incorporate issues around race and immigration in their demand? How then do we have a voice on how ‘priorities’ for our communities get selected? One lens cannot be privileged over another since it will always have a distorted view. We have to speak with many voices in order to represent our many faces and stories.
Another issue that I think applies when we talk about immigration and gender is that assimilation does not work. For immigrants of color, assimilation usually means finding, learning, and accepting ones place in the racial order. If as immigrants we could succeed in challenging and transforming the racial order in the US, that would be really good, but the signs do not point in that direction, the current anti-immigrant sentiment reinforces racial inequality and blurs and silences other inequalities such as the rights of women, children, LGBT, disability rights and other communities.
Thank you for the opportunity, and for your demonstrated commitment to fight for social justice for all!
