http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... tstory.jsp

Posted on Thu, Oct. 12, 2006

STORY PUBLISHED IN WASHINGTON POST

Remarks put Latino advocate on spot
Quote on how blacks, Hispanics are seen not meant to hurt, she says
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ
fordonez@charlotteobserver.com

Angeles Ortega-Moore has worked for years to build bridges between races.

Now the Latino activist is having to explain comments she made during an interview about how the public views blacks and Hispanics in Charlotte.

"It used to be everybody here loved the Latinos," she told a Washington Post reporter recently. "They would say, `We like you more than the blacks.' Now we're like the Big Bad Wolf.' "

Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Latin American Coalition, said Wednesday she regrets that her comments were hurtful to some. They were not intended to offend African Americans, she said.

She said her words were taken out of context and were part of a larger discussion regarding racially motivated policies.

The controversy comes at a time when some economists say blacks and Latinos are competing for certain jobs. Some employers have been quoted as saying they prefer Latinos over African American workers.

Ortega-Moore's comments appeared in a Post article last month about the Mecklenburg County sheriff's program to deport jailed illegal immigrants.

She said she received several calls following the story. Many felt her comments were insensitive. None of the calls came from Charlotte residents, she said.

Ortega-Moore said she was not expressing her views, but repeating statements made to her. Her point, she said, was to show that prejudice remains rampant in the Southeast and that communities of color are often used as scapegoats for U.S. social and economic problems. "The point was more than anything to show how the communities of colors are many times pinned against each other when issues of economic situations are arising," she said. "There is only so much abuse you can take."

A national Pew Hispanic Center poll released in March found that 10 percent of the public had unfavorable views of blacks while 18 percent held unfavorable views of Hispanics.

The poll had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

In Raleigh-Durham, one of the five regions the poll focused on, 9 percent of the public had unfavorable views of blacks versus 20 percent for Hispanics. Those figures had a margin of error of 5.5 percentage points.

The Charlotte Post, a weekly newspaper that covers the city's African American community, reprinted her comments .

City Councilman Warren Turner, a Democrat, who read the Charlotte Post story, said Ortega-Moore should have chosen her words more carefully. He said he was not offended, but he understood why some African Americans were.

"You muddy the water when you make statements like that," Turner said. "What do you gain from that, other than adding more racial division? My parents always told me, `Why would you repeat something that you don't believe in?' "

For someone with many ties to the black community, Ortega-Moore finds herself in an unexpected position.

She is married to a black man, John Moore, a former director of the Afro-American Cultural Center, and was once on its board. This past June, the Committee of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund honored her with a community service award.

Ortega-Moore has discussed building unity between the black and Latino communities since at least 2001, when she proposed a meeting to discuss tensions between both following reports that Hispanics had become a larger minority population.

Turner, who supports certain policies designed to curb illegal immigration, such as the sheriff's program, said it's wrong for Latino advocates to draw race into the illegal immigration debate.

"It's not a color issue," he said. "It's about right or wrong."

Ahmad Daniels, an activist in the African American community who has worked with Ortega-Moore, said people are afraid to address the issue through a racial lens, out of fear of being perceived as racist or insensitive.

"What Angeles said is correct. It's no different than comments that I have heard. The fact that she put it out there left her very vulnerable. She stepped out into that climate and they ate her up."