Gery Chico, former head of Chicago's Board of Education, wrote a commentary in the Sun-Times today that said Fox's remark that Mexican workers are only taking the jobs that "not even blacks want to do" is "a catalyst to get things rolling." He also said "this is a unique opportunity for African Americans and Hispanic Americans to start a true, meaningful, communitywide dialogue to discuss common issues faced by these two groups."
Rev. Jesse Jackson also wrote a commentary in the Sun-Times (on May 24) that said Fox's comment "played to stereotypes and fostered division." Jackson also said he and Fox agree that we all must focus on trade and immigration reforms and "the reality is that our trade and immigration policies are defined largely by and for corporations that are shipping good jobs abroad, and importing undocumented workers who can be exploited as cheap labor at home. We need to focus on a trade policy and an immigration policy that work for workers on both sides of the border--not for companies that fly only the flag of profit."
Jackson also mentioned that last week, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, and others created a new African American/Latino Coordinating Council that will work together on trade, worker rights, health care and living wages, and immigration.
Chico is also a former national board member of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, and serves on the board of the Chicago Urban League.
So it's about time a partnership's been formed (and this info. is more exciting than the grip-and-grin photo of Fox and Jackson that's been floating around the newspapers lately).
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