Los Cien hosts ‘honest conversation’ in Rohnert Park on Latino community’s role in anti-Black racism

About 300 people attended a sold-out luncheon Friday that addressed the Latino community’s role in anti-Black racism in Sonoma County in an event “designed to make people feel uncomfortable.”

“An Honest Conversation About Anti-Blackness,” hosted by Los Cien, Sonoma County’s largest Latino leadership organization, brought together community members with a panel of speakers in Rohnert Park to acknowledge and provide historical context to racism toward Black individuals.

“If you identify as Latinx, ask yourself, ‘What’s your relationship to white supremacy?’” Daniela Dominguez, an associate professor at University of San Francisco, asked the audience during the two-plus-hour event.

Dominguez joined other speakers, including Darnell Bowen, co-founder of Santa Rosa-based nonprofit Nuestra Comunidad; Leny Mendoza Strobel, professor emerita of American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma State University; and Bernice Espinoza, a civil rights attorney, activist and poet.

Throughout the event, the speakers prompted the audience to reflect on its contributions to anti-Blackness.

Bowen, a Black man, encouraged those who aren’t Black to not offload their guilt of being complicit with white supremacy onto their Black friends, co-workers and colleagues.

“Yes, we are tired, and I am not going to be your respite. We all have to do the work,” he said.

These kinds of conversations such as this, he continued, help facilitate the learning process. “I’m still learning,” he said.

Los Cien Board member Lisa Carreño highlighted the urgency to address anti-Blackness in the community as noted by disparities experienced by Black residents. One example she pointed to was data that shows Black residents have an average life expectancy of 71 years, 11 years less than the Sonoma County average of 82.2 years.

“I think it is imperative that we state with unequivocal humility that Los Cien Sonoma County's failure to see our Black siblings or Afro Latino siblings, our Afro Indigenous siblings, or African or Asian siblings reflects our own racism and how we have internalized it,” Carreño said as she took an emotional pause.

The internalized narrative of anti-Blackness that we know today can be understood through a history that spans over 500 years, Strobel added.

She offered a history lesson to help the audience understand how people assimilate and are complicit with white supremacy.

“In order to uproot anti-Blackness, we need to understand how modern history disconnects us from each other,” Strobel said.

Facing the future

Tina Rogers sat near the front of the event and was visibly impressed as she continually raised her fist and yelled out in support.

Rogers sits on the committee for Sonoma County’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration and the Juneteenth community festival.

“It was a beautiful scene to see so many people want to come for this particular topic,” she said after the event. “It’s a beautiful thing to see that these people want to see how we can bring the communities together with Los Cien on the anti-Blackness side.

“I really, truly, loved the experience.”

Rogers also works with students as a multicultural arts educator and program coordinator at Raizes Collective, which empowers the community through art, culture and environmental education. Regarding the change Los Cien’s leaders hope to instill, Rogers says she sees it in today’s youth.

“I already see that they're kind. I already see that they're loving. I already see that they are inclusive. They want to be inclusive,” she said. “They just want guidance and assistance and they want adults to, you know, if you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk.”

Friday’s event was part of a concerted effort to encourage lasting change, though Los Cien’s members understand it’s only one part of the puzzle. Just as the organization’s founding members saw they were sidelined in this community, members want to make sure Black residents can count on the organization as a pillar of community support.

And that starts with having difficult conversations.

“Today is meant to challenge our entrenched mindsets that perpetuate racism and anti-Blackness within our own Latino community and beyond,” said Herman G. Hernandez, executive director of Los Cien. “It is designed as an introduction and a beginning to a much longer and larger journey towards inclusivity, understanding and healing in Sonoma County.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Sawhney at jennifer.sawhney@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @sawhney_media.