Click to REPLAY

Post your comments/condolences about Quentin here.

To read Erin Aubrey-Kaplan's article in the L.A. Weekly, click here

To support the Watts Village Theater Company's latest Production "Up from the Downs" call (323) 254-5164. Runs through May 22 at the L.A. Design Center on Slauson and Western. Quentin was the founder.

A note about the Black / Brown "Wars"

 As you can see from Michael Riddick's poignant photos,  Quentin Drew was a bridge between many cultures, races and ages.  Many of us are well connected with Latinos, and here at the Expo we support the Latino Business Expo and vice versa.  This hysteria in emails about looming black and brown wars needs to stop and we need to start sending back messages of peace.  Black and Latinos are heavily rooted in the church and in the Word of God.  Then, why don't good members of both communities stand up and appeal for peace?  I know I am. 

We work together shoulder to shoulder and for the most part get along fine.  These tensions are man made.  Beware of falling for someone else's ploy to pit us against each other for a third party's gain.  It happened with the Native Americans and the Africans right after slavery, because the European immigrant knew Native Americans were hiding our runaways and they feared our full alliance and worked vigorously against it.

Read more about this in a book called Black Indians by Katz.  Next time you are going to Pechanga to gamble, ask their bookstore since they carry the book.   Most of us claim Indian Heritage, so we need to know more about this protective alliance, how it saved us before and how we need to form alliances this time.  No wonder the conservatives are up in arms about those billboards from Channel 62 proclaiming this is Mexico. If blacks who have the political experience hook up with Browns who have the strength of their homeland and the numbers, can you imagine?

Is there any wonder why the prison guards pit the blacks against the Latinos in jails and prisons and they carry those attitudes of hatred back onto the streets?  Ask anyone you know who has been incarcerated and they will confirm this phenomenon.

  Wonder what the mayoral candidates have to say about this?

We invite your thoughtful comments at African Americans and Latinos, our bulletin board.

Isidra Person-Lynn

PS:  Click to see Michael Riddick/'s other photo essay on black and brown tensions in Long Beach back in March.  He saw this coming then.

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