When it comes to the present social conditions of the Black and Latino communities, both share a common struggle in the United States. I feel that before African Americans and Hispanics can work together as minorities cultural exchange must first take place. The rebuilding of both communities must begin with the emancipation from mental slavery stemming from historical systematic oppression, discrimination, gross ignorance, and disenfranchisement. African Americans and Latinos both lack true knowledge of themselves and therefore need to increase awareness that the strongest basis of their unity lies in the spiritual and cultural realms. This must take place before political issues are to be addressed by both groups. Only through education can African Americans and Latinos finally identify the “true origins” of our divisions in this society and begin movement for constructive unity and political mobilization. There should be a constant effort to educate one another of the shared history of the African American and Latino communities. Both communities must learn about one another if “any” unity is to be lasting. The HBCU would be an ideal place to cultivate higher education within both the African American and the Latino. It is at the heart of the Historically Black College is where a vision can be explored of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems and issues that persist within the community such as the economic insecurity of Black and Latino families in underserved communities, racial and religious tensions, and the role politics play in the scheme of things. I totally agree that the HBCU should actively recruit the Latino student. The more “educated” the representatives of each community becomes, the greater the overall impact would be on building true unity within the African American and Latino Communities thus promoting a higher quality of life. The reason the HBCU would be integral in bridging the gap between African Americans and Latinos is because students would not lose a genuine sense of “self” during the academic process; this is what is most unique about an HBCU compared with “mainstream” colleges and universities. This would also in turn have a tremendous impact on the number of Black and Hispanic males that populate our prisons because those numbers should eventually decline given that more young males would spend most of their productive years attending college. Provided that there would be adequate resources within both communities such as mentors, community involvement, educators, strong families, etc there would always be a means of support for impressionable students to continue a path toward productivity as developing adults and the HBCU would be a huge part of that effort. With the African American community and the Latino community united, strong academic standards would be enforced in primary education as well raising state standards within the public school system. In closing what I have mentioned would be great possibilities in Building unity among Black and Brown. Basically strong communities are built with strong families. And in pursuing this effort; in order to begin rebuilding the African American community and the Latino community in this fashion, you must first rebuild the men of these respective communities, which would be a start.
