All day yesterday CNN had stories about immigrants all over the world. As SB 1170, Arizona’s ridiculous immigration bill went into effect, it was interesting to see that undocumented immigrants is not a problem inherent to the US. Hearing these stories (sometimes sad, sometimes uplifting) reminded me of a post a wrote when I first started this blog “Is it me, or has it gotten better?”. At that time, I felt that immigrants faced fewer obstacles today than they did 20 years ago. I was thinking about the many first generation immigrants like myself who held positions of leadership, were well-educated and still held a strong connection to their countries of origin. I also thought about a time when young Haitians living in the Northeast were forced to say that they Jamaican to avoid facing stigmas and/or violence. Now, it felt like more of us made a point to declare our heritage.

From afar, I’ve been watching this immigration bill unfold amongst Arizona immigrants, as well as the Federal Government’s reaction. One of things that has struck me as odd is that they have debated this issue as Latino problem. I may have missed it, but I have yet to see a black immigrant speaking about immigration reform and what it means to them. I know that Latinos outnumber us (heck, they outnumber Caucasians in some states), but why does it seem we are weak faction of this movement? Where are the representatives from the Caribbean and sub-Saharan African countries? From what I understood, they were facing just as many obstacles to obtain legal documentation.

Now, I’m not trying to divide immigrants by singling out blacks because we all have the same issues. However, I think it’s important that we fight just as hard or even harder for fair immigration reform. Otherwise, should we expect to reap the benefits?

Negro, ven aca!

That phrase is completely acceptable here in Caracas. But, can you imagine someone in the US saying, “Negro, come here!”

Since early on in my travels abroad, I understood that the word “negro” had very different connotations depending on the country. Each country has its own history and for the most part, the use of it still very common. While I was studying abroad in France, a friend of mine who is African-American was called “negresse” by a driver urging her to get out of his way. She was very upset after the incident and while I somehow felt that it wasn’t the same as if that same person would’ve said it English, I understood her distress. Since I started learning about black history every February in elementary school, I understood the use of the “N” word in the context of slavery and oppression.

Almost every day when I’m out, I’ll hear men call me morena or negrita mostly in the form of cat calls. The other day while my husband and I were playing a game of one-on-one basketball, one of the kids watching would call out “Eso, la negra!” whenever I scored. None of this really bothers me – until I started thinking about people saying it to my kids. I’m old enough to know the differences in using this word. I think I could even tell if someone were using it offensively in Spanish. Luckily, I have yet to feel any sort of racism here in Caracas, but what worries me is that their international upbringing won’t teach them the appropriate and inappropriate use of the word.

Since my kids are not in an American school, they’re not learning the same black history that I did. So most likely, hearing the word will never make them cringe as it does me. Regardless of culture/language though, I think it’s safe to say that black people have had a rough go of it throughout history. Therefore, I either have to drill into them the negative connotation the word possesses in English, or let them grow up feeling that it’s acceptable to use anytime. Both options are not that appealing to me, but I’m inclined to go with the first.

What do you think?