Opinion: Ethnic Diversity and Black History Month Celebration

By Rebecca Washington-Lindsey

February has been an exciting but also challenging one as the cultural organization We All Matter implemented African American (Black) History Month in a first for Laguna Beach.
We All Matter is a cultural arts organization whose mission is to open passageway that will bring about unity and harmony in our community. Our vision is to build a community that is inclusive and embraces all, without regard to ethnicity, creed, color, or sexual orientation that respects others, builds a sense of belonging for all. Therefore, it will never engage in divisive or pernicious behaviors, nor engage in cruel hateful communications.

Our organization is not contentious, nor will it ever be. We do not believe that one ethnicity is better than another: believing that there are people from every nation, tribe, and language and they all matter. Hence, we would not denigrate or detract from any traditional ethnic celebration that includes African American History Celebration. Our naysayers tried to distract from the celebration by tearing down posters, but they cannot tear down our mission.

Some people have made demands by use of bullying tactics, even that does not change the vision of our organization. Those engaging in such hateful behaviors have not spine and therefore, their mission becomes impasse. Our organization is not affiliated with Black Lives Matter nor Not in My Town, but we respect our differences. The theme “Living in Unity” seeks to honor, understand, and build unity in a multiethnic, multicultural society by becoming knowledgeable about the history, values, behaviors, language, and communication style of others.

Knowledge equals understanding, understanding equals being culturally sensitive. We desperately seek ways to celebrate, value, and identify strategies that will remove such barriers as ethnic based assumptions, biases, and unjust treatment. Therefore, we meticulously created an event and banner that would highlight African Americans: their past, present, and future.

The contrarians do exactly what the adversaries are doing: busy making false judgments and criticisms about which she knows nothing. My dad once said, “don’t be so quick to judge or criticize when you don’t know the facts and don’t have solutions.” At no time have the Naysayers stepped up and developed an ethnic celebration yet so quick to judge and criticize. Meaningful data were used to develop the organization’s name, mission, and vision.

For example, Laguna was incorporated in 1927 and has never held an ethnic celebration of any kind, forsaking a remembrance of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The quantitative analysis indicated in the 2020 U.S. Census that Laguna Beach is 89.5% white; 0.8% Black (African American); 0.1% Native American; 3.8% Asian; 0.01% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders; and 8.2% Hispanic/Latino; finally, and 3.3% are two or more races (biracial). There is a slight measure of inaccuracy in reporting census data. Laguna Beach is unique in that it represents a small underrepresented multiethnic community that matter to the whole of our community.

Therefore, we acknowledge them. They too have experienced some form of mistreatment. Recently, a Vietnamese woman was walking along Glenneyre when someone approached her and stated, “go back to where you came from.” This left her startled. Does she matter? How about the young student who is constantly taunted by others maybe because he is biracial. Does he matter? Consider the young African American woman who enters a nail salon, told she can get service. When in walk two young white girls, told they can get service, but they waited only two minutes. Meanwhile, the African American young lady was sitting 35 minutes, until I said something. Does she matter?

Our mission is not to reduce or remove the long-deserved African American celebration; a celebration that should be the entire year, but to remember the past accomplishments and struggles; and discover the current everyday injustices and struggles of African Americans. Laguna residents are ready to become more knowledgeable about African Americans and other ethnic groups in our community. We are one nation. This is the season for healing, change, unity, and bonding.

Rebecca is a Laguna Beach resident and former adjunct professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.