​Why We Came Together:

Racism exists throughout the U.S. but it has always had a distinctive significance in the South and the Southwest as a justification for the domination and control of people of color, their labor, land and resources. Ever since the time of the enslavement of African Americans and the dispossession of Mexicans and Native Americans up to the present period characterized by economic and political exclusion, both regions have served as the crucibles of development for a model of domination of people of color applicable to the rest of the United States. Much of the wealth of the U.S. was created historically through conquest, slavery and the related exploitation of labor and resources in both regions. However, geographic, racial and cultural differences within and between the regions have helped prevent people of color from working together to obtain a fair and just distribution of goods and services commensurate with the roles that we play in generating that wealth.

Racial justice is a fundamental part of any path to social justice in the United States. We believe that it will only be attained insofar as structural racism and accompanying social inequality in the South and the Southwest are addressed. African American, Latino and Indigenous low-wealth communities in the South and Southwest must play a central role during this historical moment, during which people of color will become a majority of the U.S. population by the year 2040. In order to overcome historic structures of domination and control, our communities must become architects of public and private policy, rather than being the objects of policy set by those who have historically exercised power.