“The Oppression Olympics is a conversation being generated now as the current president is engaged in his divisive immigration policy, so you have Black, Latino and even Asian activists debating who has suffered the greatest under European dominance,” said Divine Allah, youth minister from the New Black Panther Party. “Africans within the Diaspora would argue that no people have suffered and fought more. But the whole conversation is like apples and oranges. We have not stopped fighting against our own oppression just because we are highlighting somebody else’s from the same source.”
The Trump administration’s policy of initially dividing families as they crossed the border in Texas, separating children as young as 9 months from their parents and bringing them as north as New York, created a firestorm. Activist and politicians demanded that President Donald Trump stop the policy, and under much public scrutiny, he did so last month, choosing to hold entire families in facilities instead of separating them. The firestorm has not died down, however. An offshoot discussion arose regarding the focus on these particular immigrants versus others. The deportation of Caribbeans and Africans was raised as a topic, and even the original focus on enslavement.
Although a number of immigration activists are arguing that we’re all immigrants, African-Americans do not consider forced migration as parallel to choosing to come to America.
“The Oppression Olympics divide people into dozens of categories, resulting from the intersection of divisions by gender, ethnicity and sexuality, thus fracturing society along multiple fault lines,” said TaraElla, singer-songwriter and author in a Medium article. Social observers say that this idea of competing to be the most oppressed group in America can be considered as a reaction to white privilege. Nonwhite or white-passing groups are vying for the top spot. But what does winning the Oppression Olympics really do for a group?
According to 2017 U.S. Census records, the Latinx community makes up 18.1 percent of the U.S. population, whereas Blacks make up 13.4 percent. Currently on social media, there is ongoing discussion pitting the two largest nonwhite groups against each other in a battle over immigration, or as one observer noted, “exportation and importation. This discussion about who has to fight the hardest for their humanity deviates from the current immigration crisis. It forces people to these questions: “Who has the least privilege? Who is the most oppressed by our society, which is dominated by whites in power?” As the battle ensues, there is no clear goal in sight.
A number of immigration activists are arguing, “We’re all immigrants.” Others note that Africans were brought to these shores en masse through enslavement, not by choice.
In a 2009 article, Robert Suro wrote, “There are profound differences in the ways that Latinos and African-Americans have arrived at the state of ‘otherness’ in American society.”
Today, immigrant families, specifically those of Latin descent are being split apart by immigration legislation. Children of immigrants are being placed foster care or put up for adoption after their parents are deported from the U.S. Approximately 5.1 million children under age 18 lived with an unauthorized immigrant parent during the 2009-13, representing 7 percent of the U.S. child population. It is important to note that approximately 79 percent (4.1 million) of these children were U.S. citizens.
Several students from Howard University shared their stance on the immigration crisis with the Amsterdam News. Emanuel Okusanya said, “I agree that what’s happening is tragic, but a part of me doesn’t feel like it’s our fight. Blacks have always helped other communities during their struggle, only to be left in the dirt time and time again. Like I can stand up for y’all, but I’m not gonna be on the front lines, because it wouldn’t be reciprocated.”
Others pointed out the fact that in history Blacks and Latinos have banded together against white privilege.
Adebosola Karunwi said, “It was countries like Cuba that supported people like Assata Shakur during the height of Black Liberation struggle in the U.S., so they have been there to support us, and they still are.”
Brittany Ohalete noted that a protracted hostile discussion leaves no opportunity for intersection. She asked about the immigrants who are of African descent and the Afro-Latinx community. “Do they have to pick a side, or simply stay out of the fight?” she asked. “I feel like as people in general, we shouldn’t always think like ‘I’ll help you, if you help me.’”
She added, “We’d be better off as a society if we just stood up for each other, regardless of the situation.”
Latinx immigrants aren’t the only growing population. Pew Research Center data findings stated African immigrants are also on the rise. The Research Center’s Monique Anderson reported, “Their overall numbers are growing—roughly doubling every decade since 1970.”
Certain academics and activists state that some people who don’t support the Latinx immigrants might see them as a threat to their job opportunities. A 2016 Wharton School of Business study found that there is limited evidence that shows immigration negatively affects wage growth. The evidence found that immigration actually leads to more innovation and higher overall economic productivity.
“I think the Oppression Olympics is extremely problematic and is a tactic white people in power use to divide the oppressed and take their eyes off the bigger issue, which is we’re all oppressed as people of color, particularly Blacks and Latinx,” said Jermaine Johnson Jr.
Even though Blacks and Latinx are the largest nonwhite population in the U.S., they also have a combined rate of 41.4 percent of the low-income population. Black and Latinx students have a gap of achievement as high as 1.5 in some states. In 2016, the Pew Research Center reported the median wealth of white households was $171,000. That’s 10 times the wealth of Black households, and eight times that of Hispanic households.
“Until we fully comprehend that injustice anywhere is an injustice to the whole of humanity, I don’t see how we can move forward,” said Adebosola Karunwi. As State Sen. James Sanders promotes his Aug. 25 Caribbean Carnival in the Rockaways, noted that while some cultural entertainment and fun was going to be held, a serious topic will also arise. “We will be particularly highlighting the contributions of the Caribbean community in America,” he said. “At a time when President Trump is promoting his zero tolerance policy on immigration and literally tearing families apart, we are here to bring people together. We have people of different cultural backgrounds celebrating as one. We do not want to shut people out. We want to embrace the world.”
A record-setting 534 immigrants received free, personal assistance with their U.S. citizenship applications from more than 320 volunteers at the CUNY Citizenship Now! 2018 Application Assistance and Immigration Fair June 30 at John Jay College.
Organizers say that it was the “largest number of aspiring citizens the fair has aided since CUNY has conducted the event in partnership with the Daily News.”
They added, “In addition, scores of other immigrants connected with health, financial and education officials for help with services they could be eligible to receive.” “CUNY takes great pride in hosting the nation’s most extensive university-based legal assistance program for immigrants,” said Interim Chancellor Vita C. Rabinowitz. “CUNY Citizenship Now! is a shining example of the University’s unwavering commitment to its historic mission of serving the underserved. In the face of current federal policy, the program has never been more valuable and necessary in its 20-year history than it is today.”
Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez has joined the call for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She stated, “ICE is being used to terrorize immigrant communities and carry out President Trump’s immoral ‘zero-tolerance’ policy. Moreover, the agency’s almost myopic focus on harassing and targeting immigrants distracts from priorities most Americans actually share—like cracking down on transnational criminals and sex traffickers. At this point, modest reforms at the margins of the agency are insufficient. The time has come to abolish ICE.”
Velázquez continued, “While eliminating ICE would be an important step, it alone is not enough to halt Donald Trump’s deportation machine. This administration is attacking immigrants on a multitude of fronts, and we must resist on all of them. That includes reuniting and releasing families separated at the border, ending family detention and passing protections for Dreamers and TPS recipients.”