Campus organizations collaborated to create Black and Brown solidarity
PLUMAS's making DIY T-shirts on McKeldin Mall during their general body meeting on Sept.19 (Courtesy of Diana Rivera)
Historically, there are few records of Black and Brown solidarity on campus from students themselves, according to the Special Collections & University Archives.
The University Archives demonstrate that since 2004, student-run publications such as La Voz Latina and The Black Explosion have documented collaborations between Black and Latino students.
According to the Office of Institutional Research, Planning & Assessment, as of 2023, 12.9% of the UMD student population is Black, while 10.6% is Hispanic. Various student-run groups on campus emphasize cultural cooperation between different racial groups.
Diana Rivera, a senior Information Science major and president of the Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society (PLUMAS), says they often work in collaboration with the Black Student Union (BSU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to host events highlighting the solidarity between the African and Latinx diasporas.
“We’re all not free until everyone is free. So it's important to recognize the struggle that other communities have also gone through and the struggles that we go through… it’s important to stand with them the same way that they stand with us,” said Rivera.
In March 2004, La Voz Latina reported that Felipe Luciano, a Puerto Rican and Black poet, community activist and journalist who visited UMD, gave a speech which stressed cultural alliance. The Latino Student Union and Black Student Union collaborated to assemble the event according to writer Kristina Gawrgy.
In Da Shop at the Maryland V.Illinois game at the XFINITY Centeron Feb.17, 2024 (Courtesy of Emmanuel Barnes)
Keshawn Brown and Emmanuel Barnes are co-founders of In Da Shop, an organization that strives to create a community for men of color to discuss issues affecting their communities. Their discussions center around destigmatizing social norms, mental health and what society considers to be masculine.
“I can say that a lot of the issues in general that I deal with as a Black man, that someone of Latinx heritage also has experienced. So there's always that type of intersectionality when it comes to certain things. So we try to keep topics as broad as possible, just so nobody is excluded from the conversation,” said Barnes.
One of Brown's goals for the organization is to build a community where people of color come together and, through conversation, discover they have more in common than they thought.
“It's just very refreshing to see people that not only look like me, but also sometimes they think like me or sometimes they think differently, but because we may come from the same background with the same environment, it's very nice to hear similar, but also very different perspectives,” said Emanuel Fong, a senior information science major and assistant social media manager for In Da Shop.
Angelina Santos and Yobany Matos Jr. co-created the Puerto Rican Dominican Student Association to highlight the similarities between both communities. Matos Jr says that PRDSA is meant to debunk stereotypes surrounding Puerto Rican and Dominican people.
“I know many Dominicans and Puerto Ricans and we don't all look alike. Some of us are more fair-skinned, like Angelina, and some of us are darker-skinned like I am,” said Matos Jr.
Mattos Jr. is Dominican and Jamaican and wants PRDSA to expand to include other underrepresented cultures on campus.
“We need to do a better job as Caribbeans and as Latinos, making sure everyone feels included,” said Matos Jr.
Similarly to PRDSA, PLUMAS focuses on centering conversation around Afro-Latinos.
“We usually host different events to share about Afro-Latinos as well because Afro-Latinos are often not talked about and also face a lot of discrimination in the community. Like racism within the Latinx community, but also, from outside Latinx community,” said Rivera.