Barrera Minute #3
Walking the Walk.
One of the first things I learned when I began my career as an organizer is the value of a good pair of walking shoes.
Over my three-plus decades as a community and labor organizer, I have found that there is no substitute for standing shoulder to shoulder with people on a picket line to help me understand their challenges and aspirations. As the old saying goes, to know a person you have to walk a mile in their shoes.
That’s why I was proud recently to march with the United Teachers of Los Angeles as they called on Los Angeles Unified to implement guardrails and support for immigrant families under the banner of “Education Not Deportation.”
Teachers have long known that their students bring the outside world with them into the classroom. They are our early warning system for issues confronting the community, whether it’s the precarious mental health of young people, food insecurity, or – of grave importance in these times – the impact of draconian immigration enforcement.
“Richard Barrera doesn’t just talk the talk by showing up for photo ops or making pronouncements from the dais at a school board meeting. He literally walks the walk."
-Kyle Weinberg, President of the San Diego Education Association
One of UTLA’s most powerful recommendations is to establish school pick-up and drop-off areas as sanctuary zones – safe places that are off limits to ICE agents. Here in San Diego County, we were reminded last week that these locations – traditionally dedicated to goodbye kisses and reminders about forgotten lunches – have now become places of fear and tyranny. A local mother of two was accosted in her car and taken away by armed federal officers wearing camouflage when she pulled up to drop off her children at an elementary school in Chula Vista. The woman was not accused of a crime, simply of overstaying her visa. Click Here to Read
I cannot imagine what it would have been like to worry every day that my dad, an immigrant from Colombia, would not be there when I got home from school. (Picture of me, my son, and my dad from left to right)
As the son of an immigrant, I shudder to think about the psychological impact this experience had on the woman’s children. And the damage goes beyond this one family, no doubt explaining why schools in immigrant neighborhoods have seen dramatic declines in attendance following immigration raids and why some districts are even contemplating returning to COVID era online learning.
People are afraid to leave their homes. Click Here to Read
From the streets of Little Rock, Arkansas, to standing side-by-side with California’s teachers, classified workers, nurses, home care workers, janitors, hotel workers and construction workers, I’ve logged a lot of miles on picket lines in my years as a community and labor organizer. Each time, I learn to see the world through the eyes of those on the front lines. And I’m ready to lace up my Asics again.
Forward together,
Richard
