【聯合報/紐約賞析】

美國拉美裔挺黑人 共同追求改變

Latinos Seek Voice in Black-and-White Dialogue

 

“Tu lucha es mi lucha,” several signs declared at a recent Black Lives Matter protest near the Arizona State Capitol. Your struggle is my struggle. The sea of faces included young Latinos who had marched before, during the immigrant rights movement in the state a decade ago.There was no doubt in these protesters’ minds: Their fights against racism are bound up together.

不久前亞利桑納州議會大樓附近有場「黑人的命也是命」抗議活動，一些標語牌用西班牙文寫著「你的鬥爭就是我的鬥爭」。人海中有很多年輕的拉美（拉丁美洲）裔美國人，他們十年前曾參與該州爭取移民權利運動的遊行。在這些抗議者心中，他們反對種族主義的抗爭是緊密相連的。

 

“Black and brown” has been a catchphrase in Democratic politics and progressive activist circles for years, envisioning the two minority groups as a coalition with both electoral power and an array of shared concerns about pay equity, criminal justice, access to health care and other issues. The ongoing protests about police violence and systemic racism encompass both communities as well — but the national focus has chiefly been about the impact on Black Americans and the ways white Americans are responding to it.

多年來「黑色和棕色」一直是民主黨政治和進步主義社運圈的流行語，把這兩個少數群體設想為一個聯盟，各擁選票，又有一系列共同關注的事務，包括薪資平等、刑事公義、醫療照護的取得，及一些其他問題。目前針對警察暴力和系統性種族主義的抗議活動也涵蓋這兩個群體，舉國關注焦點主要卻是美國黑人所受影響及白人的反應。

 

Many liberal Latino voters and activists, in turn, are trying to figure out where they fit in the national conversation about racial and ethnic discrimination. They have specific problems and histories that can be obscured by the broad “Black and brown” framework or overshadowed by the injustices facing Black Americans.

許多自由派的拉美裔選民和社運人士也因而開始思索，在這場針對種族與族裔歧視的全國性對話中，如何找到自己的位置。有些屬於他們的明確問題與歷史，可能在「黑色和棕色」的大框架下被模糊化，或被美國黑人面對的不公不義所遮掩。

 

And while Latinos want people to understand how systemic racism in education, housing and wealth affects them, they are also grappling with an entrenched assumption that racism is a black-and-white issue, which can make it challenging to gain a foothold in the national conversation.

拉美裔固然希望人們了解系統性種族主義如何在教育、住房和財富方面影響他們，但他們也在努力對付另一個根深柢固的假設，即種族主義純是黑白之間的問題，恐將因而難以在全國對話中占有一席之地。

 

They often find themselves frustrated and implicitly left out.

他們經常發現自己深感失望，並隱隱然受到冷落。

 

“We are made to feel unwelcome here no matter what we’ve done or how long we’ve been here,” said Cynthia Garcia, 28, who attended the protest and whose parents immigrated from Mexico. As a child in Phoenix, she said, she regularly heard racist slurs aimed at her family and now hears the same words used against her own school-age children. She said it was important to march, both to “show up for ourselves, and to say this is wrong.”

28歲的辛西雅．賈西亞說：「不管我們有些什麼表現或在這裡待了多久，環境總讓我們覺得不受歡迎。」父母為墨西哥移民的她參加了這次抗議活動。她說，她小時候在鳳凰城時經常聽到針對她家人的種族歧視言論，現在也還聽到有人對她學齡的孩子說同樣的話。她說，遊行很重要，既要「為自己挺身而出，也要說出這是錯的」。

 

The searching conversations among Latinos about race are unfolding at a moment when urgent concerns about health, policing and immigration are colliding. They are also taking place before an election in which Latinos are expected to be the largest nonwhite voting bloc and could prove critical in battleground states like Arizona, Florida and North Carolina.

拉美裔內部已針對種族問題展開深度對話，而此際對於健康、警務與移民問題的急切關注也正在相互碰撞。同時這些對話是出現在美國大選前，拉美裔料將成為這次選舉最大的非白人投票集團，並可能在亞利桑納、佛羅里達和北卡羅來納等搖擺州發揮關鍵性作用。

 

The coronavirus pandemic has torn through Black and Latino communities at disproportionately high rates, in part because so many are considered essential workers in agricultural fields, meatpacking plants, restaurants and hospitals across the country.

新冠疫情以不成比例的高發病率在黑人及拉丁裔美國人社群中蔓延，部分原因是此二族群有許多人是全美農田、肉類加工廠、餐廳與醫院不可或缺的員工。

文／Jennifer Medina 譯／陳韋廷 核稿／樂慧生