La acción política del “hombre que lucha y el Sacerdote que ora”.

the interviews dealt with the concern that POC presence was lacking in positions of power, especially in activist organizations and groups. Accompanying these issues were ways in which white-identified activists are attempting to step back and make room for POC participants.

For ‘Laura,’ the lack of POC presence in the organizations that she works in coalition with is restrictive to the potential of what the she feels that organization could actually accomplish if POC were actively engaged.

“But, sometimes, one of the groups that I’m in… the capacity for numbers of the [POC] there is pretty low. Ultimately, it’s a limitation… and these people can have skills and gifts to offer, but… do you know what I’m getting at?” (Laura, personal communication, 2017).

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‘Valerie’ expresses the need for the most impacted community members to be the ones who give voice to their needs. As she says here, when the report back from the community is given in English and then is translated to Spanish, something gets lost, whether it is urgency, a feeling that does not get conveyed, or a deeper sense of

understanding. This also speaks to the community-based participatory research process and the prevalence of white-identified researchers interpreting what they see or

experience, which may be totally different from what is truly needed by the impacted community.

I think we should reverse the language order [used in these instances] here. I just think that the language that is interpreted from, like the primary language [English to Spanish-Spanish to English], a lot of the interaction back and forth happens in that language, you know? And then it gets translated. Some sets of that discussion gets translated, always. Even with the best efforts of everyone involved. So, I think that it should be in the language of the people who have the most to say about it and have really the information on the ground probably more (Valerie, personal

communication, 2017).

‘Valerie’ then speaks again to the obstacles in predominantly white-identified activist organizations and information gathering that inhibits true understanding. Resistance and racialized perceptions are still prevalent, even among those who supposedly are

advocating for the very communities that they oppress through the social reproduction of their ‘whiteness.’

We got them to have her interpret and somebody in the audience said… ‘I can’t hear what’s going on with all this gibberish.’ So you get that attitude a lot. Why are we accommodating “these people”? They should learn English, dammit! So, in official types of meetings, you sometimes encounter that attitude of people who are… they have no qualms about saying it. Where they maybe wouldn’t have said anything openly racist, but they would say, “These people should learn English in their field with us.” You know? (Valerie, personal communication, 2017).

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‘Milton’ speaks to the difficulty of creating space for POC, or the disagreement in how to do that, in order for these community members to have a voice. He expresses his belief that the “underlying” issue is always about race and how predominantly white- identified activist organizations make room or do not make room for POC in their ranks.

That group… also suffered from the fact that it wasn’t attracting POC to it. [Group name]. People mentioned it and noted it. And some people who complained about the space as unwelcoming to were mostly talking about it being unwelcoming to young women… but they also at the same time said that the spaces were unwelcoming for POC. In other words, for anybody that sort of felt a little marginalized, whatever, or trans people … Maybe that’s sort of minor, but it’s a symptom of this larger problem of an inability of groups to somehow interact and work together. And race somehow seems to be the underlying that (Milton, personal

communication, 2017).

‘Milton’ expresses the need for “older white men” to step back and allow the space for future leaders of color to take up the reins.

And I don’t believe… I don’t take [the] extreme view that older white men can never have good ideas. I think they can. I don’t think they should be completely silenced and so on. But I hope that the leaders of tomorrow are mainly not those people. I don’t want to be one of them. That’s sort of where I am now (Milton, personal communication, 2017).

‘Milton’ gives voice to the difficulties and oppressive circumstances in the Beach Flats Community in Santa Cruz, a mostly “Spanish-speaking immigrant community.” These are attributed to both conservative and predominantly (male) white-identified interests and the lack of time on the part of the impacted community members who are out working multiple jobs just to keep their families’ heads above water.

Then look at the racial dynamic there. There’s the Beach Flats, a mostly Spanish-speaking immigrant community… right on the edge of the Boardwalk, which is run by this company, which is very conservative. They donated to most of the conservative candidates for the city council, and they were known to be quite conservative. And look at the employees

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on the Boardwalk. Overwhelmingly Latinx employees who are now in the role of, in a sense, enemies of the community they border on because of the garden … I mean, sometimes we would suggest, “Well look, you guys actually need a committee of your own here among the gardeners.” But that’s very hard for them to do, because the garden is recreation and food for them. That’s something they do in the little time that they have off of their jobs, multiple jobs in some cases that they have to survive. And how can they take additional time to actually organize politically to… whereas again, privilege gives us… obviously way more opportunities to spend time organizing (Milton, personal communication, 2017).