Are the colors black and brown truly cut from the same cloth? Many would like to believe so. Blacks and Latinos gathered Friday, October 3 for the first of three Black/Brown conferences. The Southern Faith, Labor, and Community Alliance conjoined with the Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, in efforts to unite Blacks and Latinos. The focus of the conference consisted of education, the workforce, the sharing of heritage, and worship.

Wesley Morris, a member of the Beloved Community Center and North Carolina A&T alum, first discovered his passion for philanthropy while a part of the A&Ts own History Club.

In visiting eastern North Carolina, he witnessed the poor work conditions that blacks and Latinos endured laboring in tobacco fields. “In seeing that I couldn’t turn around,” said Morris.

Further seeing Black and Latino’s isolation from one another only heightened his desire to consciously be a part of the movement, “It’s not robotic for me”, said Morris. “I really have my heart in this thing.”

The division between the black and brown communities seems to derive from a lack of knowledge and communication. “I think that Africans in America and Latinos have a shared history of repression based on colonialism and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,” said Solomon Burnette, a student of the Aerobic Program at Duke University. He and many others feel that black/brown unity has gone unrecognized. “The Black Panthers and the Young Lords joined during the 1960s in Chicago”, said Burnette, both in the fight for equality.

“The split is driven by conservative media”, said Rev. William Barbara, President of the North Carolina NAACP, “We must stand vigilant.”

Blacks and Latinos, both portrayed as two separate but equally inferior nations, have fed off a platter of negativity implemented by media and governmental standpoints.

The NAACP is a society not only for Blacks, but all people of color. “Our constitution by its very design demands that we be involved with all minority communities in fighting against racial discrimination”, said Rev. Barbara.

They, along with The North Carolina Latino Coalition, African American-Latino Alliance, and the Almighty Latin King Queen Nation, have come together to bring peace, not only in the backyards of Greensboro but across the state of North Carolina.

“The black community needs to know that here in the south the brown people are the same as black and that we’re enduring the same things that they endured in the past”, said King J, leader of the Almighty Latin King Queen Nation, “now-a-days in this new millennium it’s a mental slavery that they have over us”

Many Latin Kings attended the workshops at the conference sharing their experiences with racial profiling and discrimination. Contrary to the belief that the Latin Kings are nothing more than a typical “gang,”King J and his entourage are only trying to positively improve their community by turning away from violence and focusing on the importance of education and the workforce.

“The can demonize us but the bottom line is we’re not a gang, we’re a nation and were going to keep proving this government and this Greensboro police department that we’re here for our community and to uplift our people” said King J, but “as long as we are divided they shall conquer.”

“Lift every voice and sing” was heard from the sanctuary harmonizing in the name of unity, eager to bury misunderstood animosity.

“I recognize the importance of unity holistically”, said Joseph Frierson another member of the Beloved Community Center, enlightened by the experience.

The next two conferences will be held in eastern and western North Carolina for further information check out www.belovedcommunitycenter.org .

• Brittany Dandy