On Wednesday March 24, the African American-Latino Symposium was held in Stallings Ballroom in the Student Union.

“[T]he topic of the symposium is one that will be relevant until African Americans and Latinos realize that only by joining forces, both politically and socially, will they wield the power of the majority that they will one day be,” stated Professor Carrig, who works in the Foreign Language Department. Carrig also went on to say that in the United States, there needs to be more of an effort to learn Spanish.

The symposium came about after Professor Carrig encouraged her students to attend a Black/Brown Unity conference last semester that was held at the Beloved Community Center. Soon after, Victoria Revelle, a Speech Communications major had the idea to have a similar event on A&T’s campus.

Chelsea King, a journalism major and Matthew Kirby, a psychology major, became involved and went to Professor Carrig, who agreed to facilitate and be the advisor for the program.

Dr. James Gooch was in attendance on behalf of Dr. Alton Thompson and gave the introduction touching on how the communities were alike and needed to come together.

“Statistics show that together African Americans and Latinos will be the majority population.”

Reverend Joseph Frierson from the Beloved Community Center also addressed the audience.  The Rev. Frierson spoke on the topic of stereotypes between the two communities. “Stereotypes are based on fear, and when we get past our fear, we can truly unify.” He continued that unification is not about one person. The whole world needs to have a part.

Other speakers included Elena Conley, Professor Arthea Perry and Dr. Daniel Paredes.Elena Conley is a senior at Guilford College. Her family is from Puerto Rico and when she was younger, she was embarrassed, “because I didn’t fit in. I looked like my classmates, but I didn’t talk like them.” She became proud of her ethnicity by the time she came to college and she learned that she had several similarities with African American students. Professor Arthea Perry’s father had run-ins with the Klan growing up in Greensboro, and even had a friend who almost bled to death in a hospital because he was refused treatment.

Dr. Daniel Paredes works in the Multicultural Counseling Office. He described his identity as a Latino as complicated. He flew in to L.A.X.  with his parents when he was 7 months old.

He talked about how he was in both worlds, the white and Latino worlds, but not trusted or truly accepted by either.  

After the panel discussion, there was a question and answer session, in which various members of the audience asked their questions.

Refreshments were served and there was also a performance section.

Many of the students who attended said that they were honestly interested in how to help bridge the gap between Latinos and African Americans.

“We have to talk about the similarities and differences to understand each other,” Elena Conley said. “This symposium was the first step in a positive direction.”

• Noma Vilane