Latino Challenges Toward Racial Justice Workshop

Latino Challenges Toward Racial Justice is a two-day workshop (in-person and virtual) for people who live in or work with Latino communities and who seek to end racial inequities in our institutions and end racism in our society. Latino Challenges engages participants in a critical analysis of how racism disempowers Latino, Latina, Latinx people and communities, and undermines cross-racial antiracism efforts. This workshop offers insights into the social, cultural, political, and economic backdrop of race and racism in Latin America that shapes our people’s collective identity and circumstance in the US today.

We weave historical threads that bind peoples of Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the United States in a shared six century-old racial legacy. We critically examine how people of Latin American origin, like people of all other ethnicities, have been racialized and racially situated in the US. In so doing, we debunk the premise that “Hispanic is an ethnicity” which has been used to socially engineer racial demographics and narratives. Also, we highlight how our cultures, identities, and histories of struggle against racial oppression are vital sources of strength for Latinx individuals, families, and communities. Moreover, we emphasize how racism divides Latinos and African Americans, undermining solidarity needed to strengthen our growing multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-generational movement for racial equity, social justice, and cultural transformation.