Because our communities are in trouble:

 One in three Latino babies and two in four Black babies are born into poverty; an African American child (male) born in 2001 has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime and a Latino boy has a one-in-six chance; only about half of African American and Latino students graduate from high school on time. Our people live in neighborhoods that are affected by poor air and water quality and that lack access to healthy foods, contributing to poor health outcomes, and even early death.

 

Because African Americans and Latinos have a shared history in this country:

Marked by both exclusion and contribution and by countless examples of leaders who sacrificed their lives for the larger goal of social justice. Historically, the notion of citizenship has not provided Black and Latino people with equal access to opportunity and has not been broad enough to encompass the rights of all residents to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect.

 

Because a global economy has resulted in the rise of a low-wage Black and Latino labor force that is cut off from upward mobility:

The conditions for full inclusion remain absent from our communities as shown by high poverty rates and continuing increase disparities in areas such as health, education, criminal justice, working conditions  and im

migration policy.

 

Because we seek to achieve equality, defined as just and fair inclusion:

To create a society in which all people, including Black and Latino people, can participate and prosper and reach their full potential. We, as Latinos and African Americans, realize that to have the kind of alliance that achieves fundamental changes we must systematically expand our strategic relationships to include Asian Americans, Native Americans, White Americans, and all people of good will to advance a common agenda for social change.

 

Because we need to build the kind of sustainable networks to advance a progressive and multiracial political agenda:

We acknowledge that race has been used as a wedge issue to divide us and has made it difficult to build the kind of sustainable networks needed to advance a progressive and political agenda; and we acknowledge that differences exist within our individual communities, that we are not monolithic groups and that we must work to overcome gender, national origin, and generational divisions.

How

 

 

 

we do it!