“Hate speech” cited in immigration debate
For the first time in more than two decades, the keynote speaker at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast in Birmingham is not a white person or a black person.
Janet Murguia, the president and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, is speaking Monday morning at the 22nd annual event. She is bringing a message of unity and denouncing what she said is a resurgence of hate speech in the immigration debate.
Murguia’s presence on the program signals a recognition of the growing population of Spanish-speaking people in the community and a continuation of King’s dream, said Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, an affiliate of La Raza.
Birmingham has learned something from its history, Rubio said.
“We know now how to do things differently so all people are included at the table,” Rubio said. “I think that having Janet Murguia as the keynote speaker for this breakfast pushes that forward even more and says to the rest of the world that Birmingham isn’t the place that you heard about in the’60s.”
The event at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex is sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Metro Birmingham NAACP, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Community Affairs Committee of Operation New Birmingham, and Greater Birmingham Ministries.
It took some people a little time to get used to the idea of having Murguia speak, Rubio said, but ultimately organizers are excited about it.
Smith Williams, co-chair of the Community Affairs Committee, said it’s a recognition that there are more than just black and white people in Birmingham and that everyone needs to work together to make life livable for all.
Murguia, a native of Kansas, has headed La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, since 2005. She worked at the White House from 1994 until 2000, ultimately serving as deputy assistant to former President Clinton providing strategic and legislative advice, according to La Raza.
Murguia is considered a national leader in the Latino community and in 2006 was named one of the 100 most powerful women in Washington by The Washingtonian magazine.
Murguia said she intends to speak Monday about common challenges and opportunities for blacks and Hispanics and the need to come together, as well as denounce hate speech that she said is being invoked in the immigration debate.
“We recognize that the immigration system is broken and it requires a serious debate,” she said, “but there’s no room in that debate for hate, and we’re sensing a wave of hate right now that’s not only directed at immigrants, but the Hispanic community.”