Black Brown and Sunny – Lessons on Building Black and Latino Unity in South Florida

We will share lessons learned building multi-ethnic and multi-racial unity both within our organization's membership and through close alliances with other grassroots organizations. Specific topics will include: Using campaign work to drive alliance building; Setting up space for folks to share their cultures and personal histories; Popular political education as a tool to explore how systems of oppression affect our communities in similar but nuanced ways; The particular context of building black-brown unity in South Florida, with its rich racial, ethnic, and nationality diversity.
This workshop will feature a panel made up of our own staff and members as well as some of our local allies. After the panelists share their reflections, we will break the workshop participants into small groups to discuss issues raised and to draw out other peoples experiences on building multi-racial and multi-ethnic unity. The ultimate aim is to build on the collective experiences of all those in the room and share strategies for connecting communities across racial and ethnic lines within different regional contexts.