Prof. Irazabal in Critica Urbana: Black lives matter! Latinx and POC lives matter!

Prof. Clara Irazabal has contributed a new piece on racial justice in Critica Urbana.

In 2020, Black, Latinx, People of Color (POC), and white residents took to the streets in the largest protest movement in US history. We (the authors) are strong supporters of and participants in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and through our work and participation in education, anti-racist organizing, and demonstrations, encourage all to become so too. AND we’d like for the movement and its actions not to be—consciously or unconsciously—used to invisibililize the plight of non-Black Latinxs, indigenous peoples, and other POC facing police violence and other manifestations of systemic racism and white supremacy in the US.

There is a long history of Latinxs killed at the hands of police forces in the US from the early days of this country’s origin with no or negligible consequences to perpetrators because the state has not valued the lives of People of Color. In addition, Latinx history in the US is largely unknown. Particularly in the South and Southwest of the country, both Rangers and vigilantes cleared the way for westward expansion reigning terror, burning villages, and lynching and murdering Mexicans and Native peoples. The Texas Rangers alone killed 5,000 innocent Mexicans in 5 years, from 1915 to 1920. The origins of policing are situated in the oppression of Black and brown bodies and in the defense of property and privilege for whites.