Conciencia Collective Is Bringing Together Artists To Tackle The Real Issues
Conciencia Collective is bringing together some of the biggest names in entertainment to tackle some of the biggest issues. The Black Lives Matter protests have led to some long-needed change to police in Black and brown community. Afro-Latinos have been in the fight against the police brutality mixed with the anti-Blackness from fellow Latinos. On June 26, three Afro-Latinos will discuss the movement and the need to ensure that Black Lives Matter.
Check out the discussion today on YouTube, Conciencia’s Facebook, or mitú’s Facebook.
The death of George Floyd has ignited a fight for Black lives that we haven’t seen in a long time.
Thousands of people have been protesting against police brutality and are demanding a change to policing in the U.S. The protests have been ongoing for weeks and they are creating change. States and cities across the country have started to reduce funding for police departments. Congresspeople and senators are calling for a federal change to policing in the U.S. through legislation.
Major corporations have joined social media solidarity in support of Black Lives Matter. People are now holding those corporations accountable. Protesters want to see these same corporations follow through and offer resources to help in the fight.
Gloria “Goyo” Martínez, the Afro-Colombian singer, will be there to discuss the movement in Latin America.
The singer from ChocQuibTown wrote an open letter addressing the death of George Floyd. She did not hold back when she talked about the racism she was seeing from people in Latin America in the face of the violence.
“The great reality is that there is no racial equality in the United States or Latin America,” Goyo wrote. “I saw many comments, hundreds of people normalizing the subject saying, ‘But this also happens to white people,’ ‘But black people are criminals,’ ‘Maybe if they dressed like normal people,’ ‘They’re just hurt’ or ‘You are the racists by posting messages that only produce more pain.'”
Goyo is a big proponent of education leading the way to an anti-racist and more accepting future.
“It’s clear to me that ethno-education (or cultural and intercultural education) is the path to becoming antiracists. Learning about other cultures is important for understanding the context in which we are living,” Goyo says. “There are Afro-Latinxs, who because of a lack of education on this subject, don’t know their history, nor do they identify as Afros until they leave their countries and are discriminated for being Latinxs and for being Black. If many Afro-Latinxs are unaware, imagine a white/mixed music industry making decisions based on misguided marketing studies, which exclude and stereotype based on skin color. In Latin America, there aren’t real statistics on the Afro population. Knowing the situation that more than 100 million Black people live in would help in understanding the issue, there is a lot of history and many organizations have been working on racism. Today continue to raise their voices. Continuing to speak openly would help industries not to reinforce racist stereotypes, to continue to close the doors that are opened thanks to talent.”
Rafa Pabón is another voice on the panel this week.
The trapero is calling for a unity in the Latino community to fight against the racism that is plaguing every aspect of society. Pabón wants to know that protesters and BLM supporters are not backing down from fighting against racism.
“It is important that we mobilize and use our voices. We cannot normalize this kind of situation. Racism is inhuman and I have never understood it. We have to fight together against institutional racism,” Pabón says. “There is still so much to do, Floyd is one of so many cases, we cannot stop fighting for justice.”
Sociologist Aurora Vergara-Figueroa will be the moderator of the event.
Aurora Vergara Figueroa is the director of the Afrodiasporic Studies Center (Centro de Estudios Afrodiaspóricos) at Icesi University in Cali, Colombia. The Afro-Colombian scholar holds a Ph.D. from the Sociology Department of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She concentrated on the sociological study of Afro-Colombians deracinated from the Colombian Pacific coast and the long durée of land dispossession in the world-system. Recipient of the LASA/OXFAM America 2014 Martin Diskin Dissertation Award, Vergara-Figueroa develops research on the Afrodiasporic feminist movement in Colombia. Vergara-Figueroa is currently working with Doctor Carmen Cosme Puntiel on a co-edited volume tentatively titled: Challenging Enslavement: Black Women’s Strategies of Resistance in Nueva Granada (Colombia), Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba 1550-1900.
Her main research interests are Feminist Critique, African Diaspora Studies, Sociological Theory, Critical Race Theory, Political Economy, Political Sociology, and Comparative Historical Sociology.
We are Conciencia Collective, an alliance against racial and social injustice conscious of the need to create long-lasting and impactful changes. Comprising of +35 executives from the Latin music industry including activists, journalists, managers, publicists, lawyers, directors, on-air talent, and content creators who came together in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement to create awareness about racial and social injustice with the intention to educate our colleagues, artists, and peers of influence in order to gain their advocacy. Our ongoing initiatives also focus on the many issues affecting our Latin community.
