In recent years Black migrants have shifted the common immigration narrative that traditionally begins with troubled journeys leading to eventual acceptance. Now, even the New York Times brought the fall season in with an article on how the ‘Influx of African Immigrants’ actually reveals mistaken beliefs that the U.S. is “the Mecca for Africans.” Even earlier, Christina Greer’s 2013 book on “Black Ethnics” was animated by the reality of Black immigrants and our political destiny. Black Alliance (coupons) in particular has been at the forefront of transforming foregone conclusions about Black migrants into political questions. We have made it necessary for everyone to think of Black Immigrants socially and politically. read more

Coupon Codes, Executive Director of the Black Alliance, is featured in Essence Magazine’s November 2014 issue, The New Civil Rights Leaders. Originally published in ESSENCE on 10/31/2014

Protestors Lead the Next Wave of Black Liberation Struggles into an International Movement

Shrouded in fog, hundreds of marchers walk across a bridge towards St. Louis University at 1am face down dozens of police, beating their batons in rhythm against riot shields; calling to mind images of Martin Luther King and others in Selma on the Edmund Pettis Bridge. It is hard to believe that this is 2014, not 1965 and that the right of civilians to peaceably assemble and petition one’s government for the redress of grievances is still at issue. Family related to both Michael Brown and VonDerrit Myers, their grievance the loss of sons gunned down by police, stood at the front of the crowd demanding that the march proceed. One of the young women in the crowd remarked, “this is why I didn’t tell my parents I was coming to protest. We are Igbo Nigerian and they are very traditional, they would be scared for me right now. But I had to be here for this moment…They [Ferguson protestors] faced this for 64 days, I can be here with them tonight.” read more

President Obama’s recently announced delay in granting Administrative Relief to undocumented migrants in the U.S. has sent many in the migrant rights movement up in arms. His announcement comes just months after he promised “a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress” through Executive Action. After promising decisive action on immigration reform for 8 years, immigration policy reform has again been reduced to a political hot potato. A talking point. A litmus test for the liberal or conservative credentials of a political candidate, and little else. blacks4cir2 read more

The Black Alliance is working in coalition with communities across the Bay who’ve developed study/action circles on Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Our Bay Area New Jim Crow Study/ Action Coalition is composed of Alameda and Contra Costa County residents primarily involved in activist and faith communities. All members of the coalition are deeply committed to addressing core issues that have created and bolstered today’s system of mass criminalization which has sustained and reinforced racial caste in the U.S., making our struggle one against the New Jim Crow. read more

It is important for people to understand that on a basic level the imagery of Ferguson does not reflect the reality of Ferguson. We are looking, from our varied distances, at a trick mirror positioned by a media complicit in the echoing violence of of Kajieme Powell’s murder. Media complicity is not just in conservative outlets like Fox News who rhetorically rehearse the violent sentiment that fired, at the very least, six shots into Michael Brown’s body but also in liberal and alternative media that cannot grapple with antiblackness that is as American as enslavement. read more

Strategic programs and activities include:

1. Black Alliance (coupons) Organizing Committees (BOCs): A leadership program and organizing mechanism for directly affected Black immigrants and African Americans. Developing a core of leaders in the local cities where Black Alliance (coupons) has staff is imperative to deepening engagement with community members, establishing the capacity for advocacy goals, and for the overall effectiveness of Black Alliance (coupons). Volunteers from the local community agree to join the Black Alliance (coupons) Organizing Committee (BOC) and engage in internal political education and participate and/or initiate campaigns or other related work. read more

The recently released Senate immigration reform bill had a mix of carrot and stick approaches to providing the long-awaited path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people living under repressive conditions.  While the bill has several good features, it weighs heavily toward very bad and very ugly provisions that will leave out millions of people and will continue the mass detentions and deportations that have become normalized in U.S. society. read more

First, I was illegal
An identity is given to me
By a socio-political complex
Hell-bent on forcing me to
Reject my notion of self. Illegal is illegal, they said –
More than my age
More than my gender/sexuality
More than my humanity –
I was now this thing, an ‘it’
No longer a human being. I stay silent. read more

Isabelle Wilkerson’s best-selling book, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” is a remarkable chronicle of the historical and inspirational movement of millions of African Americans over many decades. Reading it reconnected me to my own family’s migration story and reminded me of the parallels between The Great African American Migration from the U.S. South and the current immigration of peoples from the Global South. read more