blaxican. [ rants ]

[ ii. the struggle ]

blaxican.

[ ii. the struggle ]
❝ minority lives matter! ❞

Being part of two minority groups is difficult, especially when you try to bring equal awareness to both of them.

Luckily for my black side there is the #BlackLivesMatter movement that is wonderful and actually well known. It's always all over the media and I always see people talking about it. I adore this movement so much it warms up my heart.

But sadly for my Mexican side there is so awareness or movement for Latinos. I never see anything about them on the media or on the news. In fact there is never anything about us on anything. Only this one thing about Trump building a wall to keep Mexicans out. That's all I've heard about latinos on the media. That just breaks my heart.

I, as an afro-latina, am furious that there is nothing out there to support us latino. There is no tag, no movement, not even a little "hey guys latinos are struggling we should actually see what's happening with them". There is nothing. The sad thing is some people are aware they just don't care and ignore it.

Latinos are going through the same struggles as blacks and I am tired of people ignoring this.

In the same week Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both black men, were killed by police five Latinos were killed by police as well. You most likely don't know their names and you most likely didn't know this happened.

Pedro Villanueva, 19, died after police shot into his moving car "by accident".

Melissa Ventura, a 24-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by police in Yuma County, Arizona, because she had a knife when they scared her. They knew she had mental illness.

Raul Saavedra-Vargas was shot and killed by police in Reno, Nevada, because he was using the wrong closed to skip traffic.

Anthony Nuñez, 18, was killed by San Jose Police in California after they attempted to stop him from committing suicide.

Vinson Lee Ramos, 37, was shot and killed by police in Bell, California, because they thought he was holding a gun.

Another incident would be the 2013 shooting death of 13-year-old Latino teen, Andy Lopez, in Santa Rosa, California, didn't get any attention rather than the killing of 12-year-old black teen, Tamir Rice, in Cleveland. Both shootings involved kids holding a toy gun. Both were stated as justified shootings. But unlike the hundreds of articles and outrage from Rice's killing, Lopez's killing remained a local issue and inspired only local protests.

We hurt through the same struggles. I do not understand why people ignore us? Both of my people deserve attention, justice, awareness, and support! Stop ignoring Latinos! Unite us Blacks and Latinos. Unite us poc! Support the #MinorityLivesMatter movement! Just imagine how strong all of us poc would be together. We'd be unstoppable! So let's unite and fight for our freedom and rights together as the strong poc community we are!