JAWDROPPING

Black leaders say rift exists with immigrants (Steve Miller, 5/09/03, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

U.S. black leaders have failed to get African and Caribbean immigrants to think of themselves as "black" and have created a rift among the groups, a panel on diversity said yesterday.

"When we talk of housing disparities, education problems ... many [immigrants] don't think that affects them," said William Spriggs, executive director of the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality.

"Black politicians ... haven't been able to get [black immigrants] to buy into what white America is all about, about what white privilege is. Immigrants don't come here with that understanding. We have to change our language to let them know that these are their problems."

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 9, 2003 7:57 PM