Enlarge Mecklenburg County Commission Chair Jennifer Roberts

Posted: November 16th, 2011 Brandi Williams

Immigrants, refugees, asylees, internationals (collectively referred to as IRAI) and their supporters gathered on November 14 for the “Accessing Political Power & Increasing Civic Engagement” workshop hosted by Crossroads Charlotte’s Many Cultures One Community engagement effort.

The workshop's message? Charlotte-Mecklenburg is a diverse community where minorities are the new majority and they have the power to create change, but that change can only come when we value our diversity, respect each other and address our challenges as human rights issues and work together to create change.

A Shift in Demographics Sets the Environment for Change
The latest Census statistics shows a growing diversity of Charlotte’s population. Using statistics from the 2010 Census, Angeles Ortega-Moore, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, explained just how diverse Mecklenburg County’s population has become.

According to Ortega-Moore, the 2010 Census showed that Mecklenburg County’s Asian population grew by 84 percent, the Hispanic population in grew by 111.1 percent, and the black population by 17.9 percent. In addition to the population growth, Moore said races have started to integrate more, which was proved by a 99.7 percent growth in people self-identifying as biracial/mixed. 

“[What this shows is] we are no longer a community that is black and white,” said Moore. “We have to a multi-cultural community and we have to serve the needs of everyone.”

Serving Community Needs, Including Those of Non-Citizens
Mecklenburg County Commission Chair Jennifer Roberts is a self-proclaimed champion for diversity. The former international studies professor at UNCC says she understands the value of diversity and believes that when people of diverse cultures and backgrounds work together it creates an opportunity to make the community better. It is this philosophy that causes her to advocate for serving the needs of everyone in this community.

“I represent anyone who resides or visits here,” said Roberts, who said that while there are some in the IRAI community who are not documented, they still have a right to receive services. “I represent people all the time who can’t vote—children. Immigrants are the same way, especially if it’s a matter of public health or safety. We just have to be fair.”

But what happens when services aren’t fairly distributed, people in the community are denied access because of their citizenship status? It’s a difficult question to answer, but Roberts says the answer is found in the community.

“This community doesn’t [currently] have anyone to represent them,” said Roberts. “I am ready to mentor anyone who has an interest in public service.”

Many Cultures One Community
Community organizer Hector Vaga challenged attendees to organize and realize the power of community. “We have community power. Community power exists when we work together … When we begin to look at the issues as not Latino issues or African issues or issues of others and look at them as human rights issues we begin to gain power. We have to reframe the issues so that the community sees this and joins us and we all fight together.”

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