On Tuesday, June 19th, David Rivas Morales was beaten to death in a parking lot by an unknown number of men. You can read the details here. The alleged assailants are black and the victim is Latino. The local authorities and community groups are bending over backwards and twisting sideways to reinforce the idea that race had nothing to do with this assault. Unfortunately, I think this murder has much to do with race, anger and bigotry. It is time for black and Latino people to have candid dialogue about the unaddressed anger and fear between us so we can move through it. As people of color, as Americans and people aspiring to be Americans, our challenge is to forge relationships and coalitions based on mutual respect and shared understanding.

The silence of so called “black leaders” on immigration issues rolls on like a riptide. Spotlight seekers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are notably quiet when the questions swirl around immigration policy. I don’t know why that is. But, when I see everybody ready to jump on the “Jail Paris” and “Fire Imus” bandwagon, while remaining silent on one of the most pressing issues of our time, and particularly pressing on those at the bottom of the economic ladder, I know that something is wrong, something is dishonest. For them, this one’s just too hot to handle.

From where I sit, neither the African American community nor the Latino community is willing to roll up their sleeves and open their hearts enough to have the much needed dialogue about our differences and concerns. Many of the Latino writers I read, point to the lousy working conditions of the jobs that illegal immigrants take on. But, what they fail to acknowledge is that those same conditions exist precisely because employers are not forced to innovate in order to obtain a suitable workforce. Yes, illegals work in conditions Americans would not tolerate. But, if these manufacturers/processors hired Americans, they would be forced to improve work conditions to attract the workers they needed. That’s how innovation in the workplace comes about; market forces. So, when poor and unskilled black people look around and see Mexican nationals doing jobs they could and would do for a fair wage, in decent working conditions, they get angry and see how they are being undermined.

From the African American community, I see an overly simplistic assessment of the problem. For example, I have visited Home Depot stores all across America. I have yet to see an integrated group of men standing at the parking lot entrance, waiting for a chance to work for a day or for a few hours; only Latino. Where are the civic leaders with the vans rounding up young, unemployed, black men and taking them out to the Home Depot stores to work? Still more importantly, at this point, it is utterly unreasonable for poor, unskilled, African Americans to be fighting any other poor, unskilled group of people for a slice of the American pie.

I don’t have any answers, but I am here and ready to get into the conversation. Will you join me?