Black–brown unity, variations include black-brown-unityJung 2006, p. 221.Cooks 1992, p. 11. and black-brown-red unity,Eisenstein 2004, p. 132. is a racial-political ideology which initially developed among black scholars, writers, and activists who pushed for global activist associations between black people and brown people (including Chicanos and Latinos), and Indigenous peoples of the Americas (historically referred to as "red") to unify against white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, and, in some cases, European conceptualizations of masculinity, which were recognized as interrelated in maintaining white racial privilege and power over people of color globally.Eisenstein 2004, p. 37-39.
The formation of unity struggles among people of color widely emerged in the 20th century and have been identified as an attempt to forge a united struggle by emphasizing the similar forms of oppression black and brown people confront under white supremacy, including shared experiences of subjugation under colonial capitalism, Jim Crow laws, de jure and de facto school and community segregation, voter disenfranchisement, economic oppression, exclusion from white-owned establishments, and the false perception by white people that black and brown people are biologically and racially predisposed to be inferior, criminal, disorderly, and degenerate.Behnken 2012, p. 6-7
According to scholars, unity becomes possible when the person of color who is oppressed in a white supremacist society first recognizes their status as a subject of racism and then moves to identifying with a community of other similarly oppressed peoples who are already working towards change. In some instances, such as in the case of forging an understanding of yellow power, scholars have noted that the need to create a pan-Asian identity and dismantle existing stereotypes (e.g. "model minority") are also necessary steps which precede the formation of cross-racial unity, as Asian-American activists, writers, and scholars such as Amy Uyematsu, Franklin Odo, Larry Kubota, Keith Osajima, and Daniel Okimoto have addressed since the late 1960s.Watkins 2012, p. 35-42.
Black–brown unity became highly visible in 2020, fueled by activists, journalists, and people who increasingly recognized the shared struggles of black and brown people in the United States amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam Serwer for The Atlantic stated that "the lives of disproportionately black and brown workers are being sacrificed to fuel the engine of a faltering economy, by a president who disdains them." A study found that black people and Latinos were three times as likely to know someone who had died of COVID-19. The George Floyd protests have increased recognition of police brutality affecting black and brown communities and open calls for unity among black and brown people. After being hit by rubber bullets at a Los Angeles protest, actor Kendrick Sampson stated that the police were "only here to terrorize black and brown communities and indigenous folk," who are the most vulnerable. Sampson previously supported Black-Brown-Indigenous unity in 2019. The Brown Berets, a Chicano/a organization, and Black Lives Matter organized a protest in San Antonio. Protests in Milwaukee were described as unifying black and brown communities within the city. In the aftermath of a conflict, activists in Little Village, Chicago, held a rally for black and brown unity to fight white supremacy.
Ideology The racial-political ideology of Black-Brown unity is based on acknowledging the similarities of oppression endured by Black and Brown people. Scholars examining this racial-political ideology demonstrate how the social and economic oppression of Black and Brown people is not isolated from one another, but rather shares many similarities, which may serve "as a major potential resource for greater Black-Brown unity," as described by scholars Tatcho Mindiola Jr., Yolanda Flores Niemann, and Nestor Rodriguez. The range of scholarship regarding Black-Brown(-Yellow-Red) unity is broad, yet works toward emphasizing the common goal of unity in the face of oppression.Eisenstein 2004, p. 55.
Zillah Eisenstein and other scholars recognize how the need for unity among people of color emerged from the global nature of oppression and its relationship with capitalism, colonialism, masculinity, and white supremacy. As a result of this force, unity among people of color therefore operates as a means of resistance against this structure.Eisenstein 2004, p. 37-39.The language of otherness and difference became naturalized as the empire's continents become dark, and races become savage. There is a colonialist history to this becoming. Capitalism is the story of colonial conquest, of the Americas, then of Asia and Africa. And this conquest is part and parcel of an imperial masculinity which fantasizes the protection of white femininity. Dominance and domination are white and male. Colonialism simply presents itself as civilization and attempts to naturalize theft, rape, and dehumanization.Similarly, Gary Okihiro recognizes how European colonialism was built on an ideology which justified "their expansion and appropriation of land, labor, and resources in Africa, Asia, and the Americas." This ideology of white superiority was justified "in the name of religion and science" which was wielded by the Europeans to assert their own purported superiority and "civilized" status in comparison to the "anti-Christian, uncivilized non-Europeans." According to Okihiro, when enacted through colonialism, this ideology led to a plundering of the world by Europeans and the global slave trade, which dehumanized enslaved peoples as units of production – a system of European development constructed on the underdevelopment of the Third World.Okihiro 1994, p. 37-38.
First wave: 1960s-70s The first wave of movements asserting the objective of forming unity or coalitions between people of color and economically disadvantaged whites, began in the late 1960s in the United States and declined by the 1970s. Chicano activists such as Cesar Chavez in 1965-1966 and Reies López Tijerina in 1967-1969 collaborated with civil rights and Black Power organizations to forge Black-Brown collaborative activist work. Organizations such as the Poor People's Campaign, organized by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and Fred Hampton's Rainbow Coalition in 1969 attempted to construct multiracial coalitions based on the common interest of dismantling the structures which created poverty.Mantler 2013, p. 5-6. However, as a result of police brutality, government surveillance and harassment, sabotage campaigns by government agencies and local police departments which targeted activist organizations with the intention of producing distrust and disunity among activists and organizations, and the assassination of leaders such as King and Hampton, this wave of multiracial coalition building declined by the 1970s.Mantler 2013, p. 9-10.
Black-Brown unity An unprecedented meeting of African American and Mexican American activists occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the Alianza Federal de Pueblos Libres 1967 conference hosted by Reies Tijerina to explore Black and Brown unity, cooperation, and forge a cross-racial alliance. Representatives from nearly every major Black Power organization were present, including Anthony Akku Babu of the Black Panther Party, Ron Karenga of the Us organization, James Dennis of the Congress of Racial Equality, Ralph Featherstone of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Walter Bremond of the Black Congress. Representatives of Chicano groups were also present, including José Angel Gutiérrez of the Mexican American Youth Organization, Bert Corona of the Mexican American Political Association, Dávid Sanchez of the Brown Berets, and Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales of the Crusade for Justice.Behnken 2012, p. 1-3. Activist Maria Varela was also invited to the conference and to join the Alianza by Tijerina.
The meeting ultimately produced the Treaty of Peace, Harmony, and Mutual Assistance, a seven-part pact which acknowledged mutual respect and cooperative alliance. Along with the other representatives, Hopi spiritual leader Thomas Banyacya, who was present at the conference along with many northern New Mexican villagers, also signed the treaty, which began with the following five articles:Mantler 2013, p. 74-75.Article I: "Both peoples do promise not to permit the members of either of said peoples to make false propaganda of any kind whatsoever against each other, either by SPEECH or WRITING."
Article II: "Both peoples (races) do promise, never to permit violence or hate, to break this SOLEMN TREATY between said peoples."
Article III: Both peoples, make a SOLEMN promise, to cure and remedy the historical errors and differences that exist between said peoples.
Article IV: Let it be known, that there will be a RECIPROCAL right to send an EMISSARY or DELEGATE to the conventions, Congresses, and National reunions of each of said peoples.
Article V: Let it be known that both peoples will have a political delegate to represent his interests and relations with the other.The treaty concluded with the following statement: "this TREATY, will be valid between the two said peoples, as long as the Sun and Moon shall shine." While this agreement recognized that disagreements and conflicts between Black and Brown people had been present in a society which actively oppressed both groups, it signified an attempt to forge a coalitive liberation movement, and has been noted by scholars in comparative civil rights scholarship to represent the inception of an attempt to forge Black-Brown unity.
Attempts at coalition work between Black and Brown people largely occurred in the southwestern United States and had notable regional differences. In California, Black and Brown unity was exemplified through groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the National Farm Workers Association to combat racial segregation and fight for economic rights for farm workers. In Arizona and New Mexico, many Black Americans united with Mexican American groups in order to strengthen their civil rights struggle. In Texas, both Black and Brown Americans had their own widespread civil rights movements and unification was often not accentuated. Scholar Brian D. Behnken noted that "when African American and Mexican American activists moderated the divisive power of race by focusing on economics, they recognized the shared oppression of each group" and collectively fought for improved wages, hours, and working conditions.Behnken 2012, p. 8-9.
Influenced by the Black Power movement, some Chicanos accentuated the similarities between Black and Brown political struggles. In 1968, the La Raza newspaper claimed the following on the relationship and shared struggle of Black Americans and Chicano communities: "Our oppressions are one. Our dreams are one. Our demands are one. We suffer as one, we react as one, we struggle as one!"López 2009, p. 210-211. This new position was a considerable shift from previous generations of Mexican Americans, especially among community leaders, many of whom were openly assimilationist and sought to assert Mexican identity as white. One East Los Angeles study found that twice as many Mexican Americans favored cooperation with Black Americans in 1972 than in 1965, and concluded that "when one takes into account traditional animosities marring Black-Mexican American relations," this was an "impressive finding." However, while animosity from Mexican Americans notably lessened as a result of new expressions of solidarity among Chicanos, the total number of Mexican Americans who favored cooperation was still in the minority at 39%.