“Black Lives Matter. PERIOD.”
Marco A. Davis, the President and CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), participated in the recent event hosted by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, “How Latinos can be Better Allies to the Black Community.” It was part of a series of emergency webinars (LOFT Charlas) this organization has arranged to bring our community together and galvanize our efforts. This time, only members of the Black community participated, presenting diverse perspectives and lessons for the audience to listen and learn.
Mr. Davis, who identifies as both Black and Latino, used his time to share his personal experience of belonging to two minority groups and how both should access our power to enact change.
Mr. Davis is the son of two immigrants: a Mexican woman and a Jamaican man. He grew up in New York City, learning about both his parent’s experiences and cultures. While attending Yale University, he majored in both History and Latin American Studies.
Upon graduation, Mr. Davis returned to New York to work for an education nonprofit. After working in California for less than a year, he decided to move to Washington, D.C., and seek other opportunities on the East Coast. He started working for UnidosUS (formerly National Council of La Raza), where he stayed for 12 years, learning the ins and outs of the Latino community in the U.S. while improving opportunities for Hispanic Americans. In 2012, he served in the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
He told UCF Knightly News that he was particularly excited about the 2014 White House initiative “My Brother’s Keeper.” He continued to explain that the project “seeks to improve life outcomes for all young people and to reduce disparities, particularly among young men of color. One of the things that we are charged with doing is focusing on the Latino community and looking at organizations, schools, programs, leaders, who are focusing on investing in young Latino males and helping them navigate the path from early childhood ed, through the educational system, to employment, to being productive citizens in society and contributing to strengthening not just our communities but our overall economy and our nation.”
Today, Mr. Davis is in charge of leading CHCI, which he describes as “a national nonprofit organization dedicated to developing the next generation of Latino leaders. CHCI provides public service and policy experiences to outstanding Latino/a/x students and young professionals, with a network of more than 4,000 highly accomplished alumni, and also convenes Members of Congress and other public officials, corporate executives, nonprofit advocates, and thought leaders to discuss issues facing the nation and the Hispanic community.”
One of the issues facing the Hispanic community is the need for recognition of our diversity, particularly Afro-Latinos or Black Latinos. During an interview with Telemundo, Mr. Davis acknowledged that some people in our community have internalized some white supremacy sentiments. He stated Latinos are responsible for raising our voices inside our families and communities to put a stop to anti-Black racism. “We are not going to succeed in the fight against racism if we are pit against each other.”
Tying both the Hispanic Heritage Foundation participation and the Telemundo interview, Mr. Marco A. Davis has a couple of suggestions in this time of reflection and action:
- It is time to listen and learn to the Black community, including Black Latinos. But it is also time for action based on the information we are acquiring.
- It can serve us to look at people in our communities who are further along in their journey to unlearn systemic oppression. They have made progress and learn some lessons from working on this for many years, as well as made some mistakes and found some solutions.
- Public policies need to change, and laws have to pass to prevent further police oppression and the murdering of Black people.
- We have to make changes to the people who make public policies and pass laws. Unfortunately, the lack of diversity in the groups with the power to make these decisions negatively impacts Black people. We need diversity because some communities have no idea of what affects other communities.
- Finally, we have to access the power that we have. Mr. Davis recognizes that Blacks and Latinos still don’t have all the power that we need or deserve, but he insists that we should not let that cause us to give up the power that we do have.