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Live Report!
Beyond the Racial Divide
Speaker: Jose Ballester
 Ballester
began by asking the participants to introduce themselves by who they are and
how they identify themselves. People discussed, briefly, their understandings
of themselves and then explored with Ballester the ways that they might go
beyond the elements which can divide us and into the unifying elements that
can bring us together.
Ballester, in distributing note cards, asked participants to identify a
neighborhood or neighborhood from their past or present that has some sort
of diversity, and that the participant is familiar with, asking each person
to write down all the various groups that are in that area.
Ballester said, "I consider myself to be an organizer…an in-your-face type
of person. We talk about doing in-your-face-type work. it is important to
understand the culture in which you do work…to research the neighborhood in
which you are working…what are the cultures, behaviors…at Latino gatherings,
[for instance] bring your kids, your partners, because just you won't make
it."
He went on to describe the Just Works program of the UUSC, which currently
has two projects underway, one in Lawrence, MA, and one in Grove Hall in Boston.
Lawrence, MA, he explained, has had "hard economic times…it is a small industrialized
city, racially, culturally, with ethnically oppressed people who have tended
to migrate to smaller cities." He explained that the Merrimack River runs
through the center of Lawrence. On one side, the south, there is the more
affluent community -- hillier, with the factories and mills mostly on the
other side of the river. The school system is no longer accredited. Political
problems are prevalent in the city. There are diverse communities there: a
small African American community, middle class, on the south side, as well
as two Asian communities. On the north side where most of the factories and
mills are, there are two different Latino community, and two Asian communities,
and the old downtown. And on the south side of the river is the new central
city.
In the city there gang activities between the Latino and Asian communities.
Jose Santiago, former Mayor of Lawrence, asked Just Works to try to do some
work which would change the culture. Ballester said, "We have gone in, identified
the issues, and then broken out each of the communities: are the Latinos Puerto
Rican or Dominican? What about the white Dominicans, who are a little better
off, a little more involved? The darker Dominicans are in a different area.
In the Puerto Rican community, there are mostly islanders, people born in
Puerto Rico who came up to Lawrence. Why is this important? Because there
are different ethnic issues going on here: there is strife between the islanders
and the mainlanders. Also the mainlanders are more liberal in some ways, they
are more oriented toward independence, whereas the islanders wanted to remain
as a commonwealth or a state.
"In our culture," said Ballester, "this kind of caste system exists, and
is important. You can't just talk about people of color…there are different
permutations, and you have to be respectful if you want to do this work. In
the Asian community, we have Laotians, Vietnamese, Koreans. Vietnamese and
Laotians do not get along. The school in the center that caters to most of
these people is in the center of most of this strife. Before we can even go
into this community, we have to understand what these communities are about.
"The African American community in Lawrence is different because they are
predominantly middle class, southern. In many ways, they came in from the
south and have become ingrained in the economy, being in more affluent homes
and communities. And there is a white community, poor, Polish, some German,
a little Irish. They are the children of the factory workers who first came
to Lawrence. And they have more that identifies them with the Latinos and
Asians who live on the same side of the river…they share oppressions. They
get together, and the result is children…mixed race, mixed ethnicity. The
tension is that certain groups are looking at the intermixtures and intermarriages
of another group, and they are getting angry. We have no understanding of
what it means when we mix up groups.
"The city," Ballester went on, "is surrounded by UU churches…there used to
be a UU church in Lawrence, but it left. The churches have to interact with
the central city, and this is what they encounter. Peoples' jobs, incomes,
are tied into what is going on in Lawrence. We are trying to get the inner
city to realize that the UUs that surround them have power, have money, and
can create change. They are trying to form a partnership between the UU churches,
which are part of the Merrimack Valley Coalition. We want to have a gathering
to bring them into the room with the suburban congregations, and bring the
stories back to the congregations. The key for the Service Committee is to
bring the UU teens into Lawrence. The communities have strong ties with their
children. We want the UU teens there…to know that not everyone lives comfortably
in the suburbs. What happens in the inner city affects us all. The only way
to get a more thorough understanding of what is going on is to come out of
our churches and interact with these people.
"When we do this work," said Ballester, [the different groups] don't trust
each other. But working together, we start breaking down the walls. The inner
city kids said they had never been in a place where the white kids listened
to them and interacted with them. We want UUs to say, 'because you study a
problem, you don't know it all. You have to get in there and commit yourself
and your loved ones to the problem, and know what's going on…that's the only
way to know what's going on.' "
Ballester than described the Boston Grove Hall project. This area, marked
by Franklin Park, has a small community on one side of the tracks, with Latinos
in one area. It borders on the communities of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Mattapan,
and Dorchester. Grove Hall, Ballester explained, "has had a rash of extreme
violence. The Rev. Eugene Rivers started the Ten Point Coalition to try and
address the violence. Grove Hall is poor, violent, and it has a changing face.
The Latino community has Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, a few affluent Cubans,
Panamanians, and Central Americans. In Roxbury, there are northern African
Americans, and also southern blacks. There are also Jamaicans - they identify
as Carribeans, and they do not want to be called African Americans, and Haitians,
who do not want to be called African Americans. There are also Somalians,
Nigerians, and other groups from Africa. All of them are coming into Grove
Hall.
"How do we get to know these people?," Ballester said. "If we go in to talk
about what we want to do, it won't work. Through Blue Hill Avenue, there is
the Carribean parade, different from the African Pride Day parade, different
from the Puerto Rican Parade. We have to talk to these groups, and make peace
between these groups. If we work too closely with the Nigerians, the Somalians
will not talk to us. We have to build coalitions. We, going in, do not have
the cache, the history, to solve problems…the area has a long history of people
coming in who have said that. And they say, 'our biggest problem is you. You
don't understand us, you don't know anything about us.' So first of all, understand
that everyone is different, and we carry with us those differences. Despite
those differences, we can work together. But those differences do exist."
And sometimes, Ballester said, children and youth get together in spite of
the differences.
"This is hard work, you will be rebuffed. But you may need to hear it. And
if you wish to work with the community, and you have genuine concern, you
will be successful. These communities are not looking for the answers you
can provide, they are looking for what they and you can decide. We are looking
for linked oppressions, civic, economic, social oppression. Faith works as
a reason for why you are doing this work. Get to know the people. Always do
that….who is it that makes up the community? What is the spoken history??"
Ballester, in conclusion, recommended two books as resources for doing this
work: "Basic Steps Toward Community Ministry" by Carl Dudley, published by
the Alban Institute, and "Half and Half: Writings on Growing Up Biracial and
Bicultural," edited by Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn, published by Pantheon Books.
An additional bibliography of resources can be obtained by writing to Ballester
at: jballester@uusc.org .
Reported and photographed for the web by Deborah
Weiner; formatted for the web by Julie
Albanese.
Workshop Background
Beyond the Racial Divide
Speaker: Jose Ballester
About the Workshop:
Despite our efforts to simplify, urban communities present a diversity that
defies easy classification. Ethnic, religious and national differences within
the Black, Latino, Native and Asian communities renders any attempt at unification
on a supposed common trait, wholly inadequate. In order to effectively partner
with a community it is required that we learn the unique interactions, conflicts
and oppressions of the various groups and sub-groups in the area. Explore
two projects that are addressing the diversity of oppressed communities in
two Massachusetts cities: Lawrence (Asian and Latino) and Grove Hall in Boston
(Black).
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