How Africans Can Help Gov. Patrick finish what he started

A section of the estimated over 600 Africans who congregated at the Tobin Community center in Roxbury recently to attend the On Our Side: Communities Connecting for Deval Patrick”. event . H.Maina/Ajabu

By: Rev. Torli H. Krua

DORCHESTER, Mass. , APRIL 30_There is no question; the African community’s support for Governor Patrick and our commitment to his agenda are strong and unshakable. We supported Governor Patrick yesterday. We support him today. And we will support him all the way.

But politics is not just about our pride or participation in casting ballots. Politics is also about our future and interests, a seat at the table and prioritization of our agenda.
While voting may get our feet in the doorway, voting alone cannot get anyone a seat at the table or prioritization of an agenda. Yes, we must vote but we must also do better by going beyond mere casting of ballots.

Just as Africans have run and won the Boston Marathon year after year, time has come for Africans in Massachusetts to go beyond mere running of marathons, lecturing at universities, nursing the sick and preaching at places of worship; Africans need to run for civic leadership.

Unless we run, we cannot win. Unless we win, we cannot sit at the table where decisions are made. Unless we sit at the table, we cannot decide on matters pertaining to our future and the future of our children. Unless we decide, others will continue to decide for us to our detriments. Let us therefore begin running for office thereby helping Governor Patrick finish what he started.

We can ensure that Governor Patrick wins in November by helping him to resolve three unresolved problems of interest to refugees and immigrants in Massachusetts.

Although refugee and immigrant organizations are registered with the state and Africans work over time and pay taxes, I know of no African organization or faith-based group that was invited to give input when our government decided to craft the 131 recommendations (agenda) for immigrants and refugees in Massachusetts.

African community church leaders pose for a photo with Gov. Deval Patrick during the receent.From left to right is Pastor Wilson Balinda and Pastor Frank Mwebesa from Uganda, Gov. Patrick and Pastor Jared Mlongecha from Tanzania

It took 18 months and several meetings, held across Massachusetts. Not a single meeting was held on weekends. Most immigrant organizations and faith-based groups that hold important meetings only on weekends were excluded because the experts believe they can think for us since they know exactly what refugees and immigrants need.

This is an unresolved problem that might come to “bite” our Governor.
At the same time, very few or none of the members of the African community and faith-based organizations are aware of the existence of the Massachusetts State Office for Refugees and Immigrants.

I am talking about the state's office created for refugees and immigrants that is not only hidden from most refugees and immigrants but also not representative of the people it was created to serve. In other words, not only are the senior management and director of the office created for refugees and immigrants neither refugees nor immigrants individuals, they are contented to be out of touch with majority of the state’s refugee and immigrant communities and their leadership.

By deliberately marginalizing the majority of Massachusetts’ refugee and immigrant community, the state office has made itself completely irrelevant so far as the daily struggles of most refugees and immigrants are concerned and has become ‘good for nothing’.

Finally, for these individuals the issue of exclusion and discrimination is considered by them as an issue about jobs - their jobs. They, like any human being would fight to hold on to and protect their jobs. In contrast, for majority of Massachusetts’ refugee and immigrant communities, the issue is not about jobs, it’s about our lives, access to opportunities, our future and the future of our children.

So we owe it to God, the giver of life and to our Governor, Mr. Deval Patrick to reverse this troubling trend by overhauling once and for all the Massachusetts Office for refugees and immigrants’, making it representative of its constituency like it is in Maine and other states.

Discrimination in American is nothing new and has never been by chance but by complex design. In protecting their jobs, folks at the Massachusetts Office for refugees and immigrants have instituted a complex, systemic and endemic discrimination against the very vulnerable communities they are paid to serve.

Their design is motivated by the love of patronage and amounts to a scheme designed to protect their jobs at the expense of the lives of countless tens of thousands of refugee and immigrant residents of Massachusetts.

So whether it was done with good intentions or by hook or crook we must proclaim loud and clear, we can do better! Yes, we can! We can do better than the state of Maine, where the office for refugees and immigrant is representative of its constituency. Yes, we can! With Africans as the largest group of refugees admitted in the USA in the past decade and many of them becoming citizens, we can identify thousands of qualified refugees and immigrants to serve at Massachusetts Office for refugees and immigrants.

I wonder If Massachusetts cannot make the office to be more representative of its constituency, then what else can Massachusetts do? If we cannot hold simple meeting on weekends to get the input of majority of refugee and immigrant communities and faith-based organizations that only meet on weekends, how can we even be sure that the product of the immigrant Agenda crafted without the input will even benefit the community with which the crafters are out of touch?

If Gov. Patrick can meet the African faith-based, immigrant and refugee communities on a weekend, isn’t it disrespect that Massachusetts’ experts who are paid to serve refugee and immigrant communities did not hold even a single meeting on a weekend when they were drafting the agenda for refugees and immigrants?
Ladies and gentlemen, we love Governor Patrick and our commitment to his agenda is strong and unshakable.

This issue demands an immediate action to reflect the change we can believe in! Until we can help our Governor prepare answers to the troubling questions of systemic discrimination against refugees and immigrants orchestrated by the state office created to serve refugees and immigrants, we are doing our Governor a disservice.

After four years our governor needs to answer critics who compare the states of Maine and Massachusetts in dealings with refugees and immigrants. With Africans on the faculty of every major university, staff of every hospitals, and nursing homes and with Africans winning most races in the Boston Marathon, there are few who believe immigrants are not qualified to serve Massachusetts.

Right, Rev. Troli Krua, a Liberian native and pastor of Ziah Mission Church in Dorchester together with a Cameroonian friend during the Gov. Patrick event in Roxbury recently. H.Maina/Ajabu

Here is how you may help Governor Patrick prepare to answer the tough questions pertaining to systemic discrimination against Massachusetts Office For Refugees and Immigrants:

1. Write a letter to Gov. Patrick and the state to inquire whether your organization, community or faith-based group was invited to participate in giving an input in drafting the Agenda for Massachusetts’ refugees and immigrants called “The New American Agenda”
2. State in your letter if your organization holds important meetings on week days and how many of your community members would attend week day meetings.
3. Third join us in calling for a complete overhaul of the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, making it representative of the communities of refugees and immigrants it was created to serve.
4. Get a copy of the application for the Initiative for Diversity in Civic Leadership and put in your application to prepare to lead on the state and federal levels.

Mail your letter to: (Deadline May 1, 2010)
Universal Human Rights International
31 Heath Street, Boston, MA 02130
Tel: 617-933-9391

Rev. Torli Krua is a Liberian native, pastor of Ziah Mission Church in Dorchester and a member of the Class of 2009 IDCL. Tel: 617-933-9391 / uhrinews@yahoo.com

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