Racism and Immigration Reform: erasing Fears and Stereotypes by Remembering Our True History

Most of people that I know and who work with advocacy groups for an immigration reform in the U.S., are mostly convinced that racism plays a big role among U.S. citizens who oppose such legislation. I agree.

The fact that today most undocumented immigrants are of Indigenous and African heritage -and not of European origin- makes a lot of American people uneasy about having more brown skinned citizens. There are myths and stereotypes behind those fears.

Here are two videos I made with two DC college students regarding these issues. In the first video a student talks about the true history of this country and this continent, and how race and identity are very important issues when it comes to immigration reform:

In the second video another student talks about how borders, nationalities and race keep people divided, how human rights are violated by current immigration legislation, the way how immigrants are portrayed by U.S. media and the importance of acceptance of people's diversity to see others as equals:

I still have some questions. Why is that we Native people are called Hispanics and Latinos? Why are some white people so afraid of non white people? How important is for U.S. citizens to learn about our true history and other people’s cultures to understand the urgency of immigration reform?

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