Building Bridges Among Communities of Color
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Building Bridges Among
Communities
of Color
The People United
Will Never Be Defeated!
Exercise:
Time:
Welcome, Review of Agenda & Goals
5 min
Team Builder – Intergalactic Olympics
60 min
Overcoming Divide and Conquer to Build Power
40 min
Unity & Bridge Building
60 min
Closing
10 min
Total Time
3 hours, 10 min
With 10 min break
Overview
The goals of this workshop are to:
1. Understand that communities of color share common struggles and interests.
2. Explore how divide and conquer is a strategy used to keep us from realizing our true power by
creating and exploiting small differences in status of different groups. We have been
intentionally miseducated about our shared histories of struggle and common interests.
3. Alliances are forged on shared interest and campaigns must identify shared interest among
communities of color in order to build alliance. Sometimes not all communities will be core
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constituency – instead, communities can show different levels of support for the campaign or
alliance.
Appendices:
Appendix A – Intergalactic Olympics Guide
Appendix B – Pyramid of Power
Appendix C – 500 Years of Divide and Conquer – Tools of the Trade
Appendix D – Flipping the Script Gallery Walk
Appendix E – Bridge Building Scenario (HR4437)
Appendix F – Key Questions & Levels of Support
Appendix 1 – Myths About Immigrants (attached)
False “Team Builder” – The Intergalactic Olympics
Why do it?


Give students a chance to feel competitive towards each other in the game in
order to understand how competition is a key mechanism in divide and conquer
Show people how easily we fall into competition and turning our anger on other
people “playing the game” rather than those who set up the game
Time
60 minutes
Materials
Butcher Paper, Tape, Markers
Butcher Paper 1: Pyramid of Power
Rolled up balls of paper and a receptacle (like trash can) for “Paper Ball Dunking”
A big, empty box
Batches of Hershey Kisses – 50, 30, 20
Facilitators
Note
Directions
This is a false team builder – remember not to give it away. See Intergalactic
Olympic Guide (Appendix A) for how you should score the team. Prepare the
space for the events in to happen inside a circle or the front of the room with space
for each team to sit together to watch. For the empty box, you can put some old
shoes or other kind of raggedy weight in there so it looks like it has something in it.
Don’t let anyone touch the box.
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1. Open by explaining that we are start with a team builder today. We are going to
break the group into small groups representing different planets in our solar
system and you will be competing for your planet in the intergalactic Olympics.
2. Get the group into small groups of 4 – 6 (depending on the size of your workshop,
you should have at least 4 groups). Assign them planets to represent (Venus,
Pluto, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Mercury). This Olympics, Earth is hosting – so the
facilitator is the earthling.
3. Role play the earthling by:
 Welcoming everyone to planet Earth. Earth is honored to be
hosting the Olympics. Point out all the resources Earth has
compared to the rest of the solar system: abundant water, forests,
and animal life. All these resources are shipped to other planets
so that other people can enjoy them. Now they get to see the
source.
 Explaining that there is a wonderful prize for the planet that
models how to be a team and wins the Olympics (refer to the big
empty box) AND fifty thousand intergalactic dollars (each Hershey
Kiss is one thousand intergalactic dollars). The second and third
place finalists will get intergalactic monetary compensation
(Hershey Kisses) – second place will get thirty thousand and third
place will get twenty thousand.
 Explaining that there are three events in this Olympics: Thumb
Wrestling, Ro-Sham-Bo to the Death, and Paper Ball Dunking.
Each event is designed to test a different strength within the team.
Ask if anyone needs instructions on how to play any of these
games.
o Thumb wrestling is where people face off one on one
across from each other on a table. They clasp hands
with their thumbs facing up and free while the rest of
their fingers are clasped into the other person’s hand.
The thumbs then compete to pin down the other
thumb for a count of three. You cannot move the two
clasped hands from off the table.
o Ro-Sham-Bo to the Death is the critical second
event. People face off and they say “Ro, Sham, Bo”
– On “Bo”, they make their hand in the shape of a
Rock, Paper, or Scissor. The rock can smash the
scissor, the scissor can cut the paper, the paper can
defeat the rock. Who ever wins, gets to go on to the
next event, who ever looses dies (gets eliminated). If
the two people do the same hand shape, they Ro
Sham Bo again.
o The final event is Paper Ball Dunking. This event is
more about artistic form. The remaining contestants
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will pick one person to represent their team. That
person will dunk the paper balls into the trash can
using whatever flair, grace, and creativity they have.
People cannot copy each other. The Earthling
(facilitator) will judge the contestants on a scale of 1 10.
Explain that this game is designed to be fun and because we do not have a lot of
time, you are asking the contestants to not argue about the scoring or judging –
just have fun and trust the facilitator.
Put up the team names on a butcher paper to score the events.
4. Get them excited about the game and then run the game according to the
Intergalactic Olympics Guide (Appendix A).
5. By the time you give out the prizes, some people are probably upset. Calm people
down by explaining that was a game and it was not supposed to be fair. We
played it to demonstrate how competition has been used to divide our
communities. Have people open up the box and show that there is nothing of real
value in there. Give everyone as many Hershey Kisses as they want.
6. Explain that now you are doing the real activity: debriefing from this Olympic
experience. Ask them:






How did that feel to play that game?
Who were you angry or frustrated at?
How did it feel to be in your planet group? – draw out what it felt
like to be the “Bad” planet, the “Favorite” planet, and the planets
in the middle.
How would you relate it to how different ethnic groups experience
in the U.S.?
What are the different “prizes” that the system has us competing
for?
What would be a better way to deal with the situation?
Points to draw out from this discussion:
 It’s often easiest to be frustrated by the people you are competing
against rather than the person that is setting up the competition.
 Draw parallel between “prizes” and citizenship, access to
resources, etc. Earth as the planet with the most resources –
everyone wants to come here. Many times the prize is empty –
its not what it is chalked up to be. Yes, there is a growing middle
class among all people of color – at the same time, there is the
general trend of the racial wealth divide (which we will go over
later). Some people “make it” but on the whole, people of color
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

don’t – but we are always told about the few success stories
because that’s the way to keep people’s belief in the “prize” alive
against all the evidence that there is no real prize for us.
Certain groups are often used at different points in history to
create examples for how the system works. Model minority is
used to say “hey, play by the rules and you can make it.” Often
times this is not true for the model minority group but they are
also tricked into believing it. Or, some members get just a little bit
more and they buy into the rules. Other groups are used as
examples of how not to rock the boat. These groups often
change over time; Chinese people were once called the “Nigger
of the West” and Japanese people were the only people to be
interned. However, according to the convenience or needs of the
system, in the last 40 years, East Asians have been put up as the
“model minority”.
Here the familiar quote of “don’t hate the player, hate the game”
takes on a whole new meaning. It’s a reminder to us that we
shouldn’t hate the other people who are forced to play this unfair
game. They are in the same situation as us. Instead we all need
to learn how to hate and change the game.
7. Explain that now you are going to illustrate with hard data, how the game is
constructed for people of color and along other lines. Share Butcher Paper 1:
Pyramid of Power (Appendix B).
8. Start with the class stats with the wealth. Who do they think comprise the top 1 –
10 % of the pyramid? [white people]. Who do they think comprise the bottom
89% [people of color and working class whites]. Draw a parallel with the Olympics
by stating that small differences in how we are rewarded by the system seems
significant to us because the size of the pie we are sharing with others in our same
class group is so small. BUT these differences don’t mean anything in the larger
scheme of things – when you are making half a million dollars a year, it does not
mean anything for you to pay one person $200 more than another to keep them
competing with each other to do your work.
9. Refer to the circles representing the “piece of the pie” that each section in the
Pyramid of Power is sharing. The scarcity of the resources we, as the bottom 80%
of the population, are sharing is manufactured by capitalism – the rich get richer
and the poor get poorer. Imagine how small the pie is at the very bottom – say the
bottom 50% or bottom 30%. The poorer we are, the more desperate and prone to
in-fighting we are. The scarcity keeps us in this fight for crumbs/competition
mentality which keeps us from accessing the only real power we have: the power
of numbers.
10. Throw in a couple other stats that deal with race and how it intersects with class.
You may choose to throw in stats relating to gender to show that there are many
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ways our communities are divided and in this particular workshop we are talking
about race AND we need to be aware that there’s many other dimensions where
we need to recognize the unity we could have (along gender lines, sexual
orientation, class, etc).
Source
Pyramid of Power – Neelam Pathikonda and Mateo Nube
Overcoming Divide and Conquer to Build Power
Why do it?


Ground people in historical examples of how divide and conquer have been used
in the past
Connect to current experience of divide and conquer in people’s lives
Time
40 minutes
Materials
Butcher paper, markers, tape
Handout 500 Years of Divide and Conquer – Tools of the Trade (Appendix C)
Flipping the Script Gallery Walk (Appendix D)
Facilitators Note
Prepare the Gallery Walk by putting the pictures on the wall, spaced out so
students have to move to see the different pictures. Cover the pictures until the
Gallery Walk portion of the agenda.
Directions
1. Explain that divide and conquer has been used for hundreds of years by
oppressors (who are in the minority) to keep the oppressed (who are in the
majority) down. How does divide and conquer work? What are the tools of divide
and conquer? Think back to the previous Olympic games as well as your own
experience.
2. As you take responses, you can throw out any of the examples listed in Appendix
C to illustrate people’s points or to give them ideas.
3. When people wrap up their ideas, give out Handout 500 Years of Divide and
Conquer – Tools of the Trade (Appendix C). Go over the examples briefly and
validate their responses. Emphasize that the miseducation we get about
ourselves and other people of color sets us up to in-fight. Recognizing our own
prejudices against each other and unlearning them is part of the work we need to
do to have unity.
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4. When you get to the Flipping the Script portion of the hand out, ask the group to
read this part silently to themselves and walk around the room to observe the
Gallery Walk.
5. After letting the group mill around observing the photos, ask them to stand next to
the image that they liked the most or made the most impact on them. Take
several volunteers to share which picture they stood next to and why they chose
that picture.
6. Close the Gallery Walk by re-stating that our history, just as its filled with as much
resistance as oppression (or else we wouldn’t be here!), is filled with as much unity
between our people as there was manufactured conflict. Part of us re-educating
ourselves is about learning our own groups ethnic studies as well as other people
of color histories so we can draw out the commonalities and history of alliances.
We’re not going to find that information laying around – we have to each work hard
to find it (because of how divide and conquer works, we aren’t “supposed” to find
it).
7. Transition by saying that we are going to flow into the next activity by first thinking
about how all the stuff we just learned connects to how you see your lives now.
Ask, “How do you see divide and conquer playing out in your life or your work right
now?” Scribe comments and answers. Summarize.
Sources
Gallery Walk sources, Tools of the Trade Example Sources: African American
Migration www.nebraskastudies.org, Ronald Takaki quoted in
opmanong.ssc.hawaii.edu/filipino/plantation.html,
ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/chronology/
Unity and Bridge Building Scenario (HR4437)
Why do it?

Have participants think about and practice how to tap into the personal interests of
different communities in building a coalition, difficulties of building unity, and
different levels of support people can offer to a campaign depending on where
they are [meeting people where they are]
Time
60 minutes
Materials
Handout Coalition Building Scenario (HR4437) (Appendix E)
Handout Principles for Successful Coalitions & Levels of Support (Appendix F)
Handout Myths About Immigrants (Appendix 1)
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Directions
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1. Explain that now you will get to role play a multi-racial coalition building scenario
from real life. Several of you will get to the be the organizers and members of
Everyone Is Illegal, an pro-immigrant group, and the rest of you will get to be the
members of various ethnic communities. The scenario will be around mobilizing
for the big march against HR4437 last March 2006.
2. Ask how many people participated in or heard about that march and the issue.
Ask them to explain what they knew about the issue and who was involved in the
work. What were the issues around multi-racial unity around the work at that
time?
3. Get volunteers to play the different roles in the scenario. Explain that everyone
will get to meet in their groups to discuss how they will play their scenario.
Everyone Is Illegal will go through one round of meetings with the different
communities. Then everyone will get a chance to meet again with their group to
discuss their next steps. The organizers and members will get a chance to have
second round of meetings with the communities and that will conclude the role
play. The goal of Everyone Is Illegal is to mobilize as much support as they can
around the March 1, 2006 Day Without an Immigrant Boycott against HR 4437.
4. Give each group their scenario sheet and do not let them see other people’s
scenario descriptions. Give the Everyone Is Illegal group the Principles for
Successful Coalitions & Levels of Support Hand out and instruct them to consider
the hand out in crafting their strategy. Give everyone time to come up with a
strategy.
5. Run the role play by:
 Asking Everyone Is Illegal to meet with each ethnic community.
 Giving each group 10 min. to re-group and develop their next plan
of action.
 Asking Everyone Is Illegal to meet with each ethnic community
again.
 End the role play – if the groups are still unresolved about their
position on the Boycott, have them explain what they would have
done next.
6. Bring the group back into the big group. Pass out the Principles for Successful
Coalitions and Levels of Support Handout to everyone. Explain that the EIL group
used this handout as a guide to create their coalition building strategy.
7. Debrief the activity by having each group read their role play aloud to the other
groups. Further debrief by asking the following questions:
 Ask the EIL members and organizers what was useful about their
process in developing a strategy to get the support of these other
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



communities – especially relating to strategies they found in the
handout.
What worked for coalition building? What didn’t? What was easy
and what was difficult? Do they have lingering questions?
Ask the other community members what was effective or not
effective about the way they were approached for support? How
do they feel now about the Boycott?
Ask everyone “Do you have suggestions for different approaches
or strategies that could have been used to get the support of
different ethnic communities?”
Are there things to do before and or after the Boycott to build
bridges on a more on-going basis?
8. Transition into applying learning to their own work. Ask them how they would
relate this scenario and ideas to the work that they are doing now.
Closing
Time
Materials
10 minutes
None
Directions
1. Bring it back to the goals of the workshop.
2. Explain that you are asking them to think personally about resisting one of the two
main tools of divide and conquer: mis-education. Ask them to consider:
 What is one thing you resolve to do to learn about our common
struggles – will be asked to share
 What is one prejudice or misinformation that you have about
another ethnic group that you would like to work on unlearning –
will not be asked to share
3. Invite people to share their first thought. The second thought stays confidential.
4. End with the Unity Clap. Explain that the Unity Clap was a way that the workers of
differing ethnicities in the farm worker movement ended their meetings to
demonstrate the unity they had even though they spoke different languages.
Remind participants of the history of people of color in working the land and
providing food for this country: African American slaves – share croppers – and
farmers, Asian Americans cultivating the central valley in California, Mexican and
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Native American land we are standing on, Raza and Asian farm workers… We all
share a common history and common struggle for justice.
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Appendix A – Intergalactic Olympics Guide
FOR FACILITATOR EYES ONLY!
The idea for the false team builder is to create animosity and competition between the groups.
Your main goal is to start of with the semblance of fairness and then not actually be fair in the
judging – not so much so that people rise up and turn on you, just enough to create tension
amongst the groups. Encourage inter-group competition instead of focus on you.
Pick one planet to be your “favorite” planet. This will be your model minority planet. For this
planet, give them verbal praise and comment how the other planets should look at their example –
especially point out how they are really understanding and demonstrating what you are looking for
in a contestant.
Pick one planet that is the “bad” planet. This will be your example that you punish and make an
example out of so other people won’t question your judging or rules. For this planet, make little
unfair deductions on their points.
Start the Events.
Thumb wrestling. Get each team to pick a representative to face off with another team on the
table. Pair them up. If you are dealing with an odd number of groups, pick one group that can
send two representatives. Each representative that wins the thumb wrestling will win 10 points for
their planet. If people say its unfair that one team gets to send two reps, just remind them not to
worry about the logistics, trust the process, and focus on having fun and building team work. Start
all the pairs on wrestling at the same time, tell them they have the maximum of one minute to
wrestle.
Congratulate the teams and give out points on the butcher paper.
Ro-Sham-Bo to the Death. Have planets face off against each other. Each team send one
person up after the other to face off with a person on the other team. Which ever one looses
needs to sit out for the remainder of the Olympics. Teams will get 5 points for each person
remaining on their team. If your teams are odd, you might ask one team to sit the event out.
Explain that this is fair because while they don’t get the points, they also won’t loose any team
members in this battle to the death. The team sitting out should not be the Favorite or Bad team.
Congratulate the teams and give out points on the butcher paper.
Paper Ball Dunking. Have each team pick one representative to dunk the paper ball. Explain that
all aspects of the dunker will be judged: the lead up to the basket (trash can), the execution of the
dunk, as well as the exit. Here is where you as the judge can be really arbitrary in your judging –
have fun with it. Since this is also the last event, you can up the tension if you feel it is necessary.
Congratulate the teams and give out points on the butcher paper.
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Total up the points and celebrate the top three teams. Make sure your Bad team does not win
anything.
Give the box to the top team and 50 Hershey kisses. Give the second place team 30 Hershey
Kisses and give the third place team 20 Hershey Kisses.
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Appendix B – Pyramid of Power
The richest 1% of
households own 40%
of the wealth
The richest 10 % of
households own 80%
of the wealth
The size of the pie
we are asked to
share (or fight for)
with people in our
same groups
The bottom 80 % of
households own 8% of
the wealth
I envision a better graphic on this page: maybe actual pies,
etc
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Pyramid of Power Statistics
Sources:
For stats with one *: Field Guide to the U.S. Economy. The Center for Popular Economics.
www.fguide.org
For stats with two **: The State of Working America. Economic Policy Institute. www epinet.org
RACE

The median financial wealth of Latino households: $200
The median financial wealth of black households: $1,100
The median financial wealth of white households: $42,100
(2001 numbers) *

For every 100,000 white residents in this country, 503 are serving prison
sentences.
For every 100,000 Latino residents in this country, 1,315 are serving prison
sentences.
For every 100,000 Black residents in this country, 3,590 are serving prison
sentences. *

The percentage of people without health insurance in this country broken down by
race (2002-2003 numbers):
 White: 11%
 Asian: 19%
 Black: 20%
 Native American: 28%
 Latino: 33% *

Affluent suburban schools spend from twice to 10 times as much as city schools
with mostly students of color. **

In 1979, the median weekly earning for black men was 76 cents to every dollar
earned by white men. By 2004, this ratio had gotten worse: 71 cents to every
dollar.
In 1979, the median weekly earning for Latina women was 83 cents to every dollar
earned by white women. By 2004, this ratio had gotten worse: 70 cents to every
dollar. *
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(The racial wage gap actually decreased in the 1960’s and early 70’s, but the
backlash against racial equality laws like affirmative action that ushered in the
Reagan revolution brought and end to this progress...
CLASS

The richest 10% of U.S. households own 80% of the wealth in the country.
Of these, the richest 1% own 40%!
The bottom 80% of U.S households own only 8% of the wealth.
(2001 numbers) *

In 1960, CEO’s made 40 times more than the average factory worker in the U.S.
In 2001, CEO’s made 475 times more than the average factory worker. **

The poorest 20% of the U.S. population spend 17% of their after-tax income on
health care costs.
The wealthiest 20% only spend 3% of their after tax income on on health care
costs. *

During the decade long stock market boom of the 1990’s, 86% of the benefits went
to the top 10% wealthiest families. 42% of the benefits went to the top 1%
ALONE! **
(So why is the stock market so important and top of the news all the time if
it only matters to a sliver of the population...? Oh that’s right, I forgot...the
folks who own mainstream media outlets all happen to belong to that
sliver...)

The bottom 18% of U.S families has zero or negative net wealth, meaning they
owe more than the value of what they own. **

In 2001, the median hourly wage for white men was $15.90. For Latina women it
was $9.04. **

The average woman’s standard of living drops 73% during the first year after a
divorce. The average man’s standard of living improves 42% during the same
year. *
GENDER
BONUS CRAZY STAT...
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
In 2000, middle-income Black families worked about 500 hours more per year (12
full-time weeks) than white families with similar incomes. For Latinos, that number
is even higher: 584 hours (15 full-time weeks). **

And if you want to flip out even more about the live-to-work mentality so pervasive
in the U.S, check this one out: In 1973, the average U.S. worker worked 43.8
weeks per year. By 2000, that average had jumped to 47 weeks per year. That’s
almost 200 hours of extra work per year. In contrast, all other industrialized
countries (excluding the U.S.) saw an average decrease of 215 hours worked per
year between 1979 and 2000. **
Remember:
Wealth = Assets – Debt
Said in yet another way:
Wealth = The value of everything you own minus the value of everything you owe...
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Appendix C: 500 Years of Divide & Conquer – Tools of the Trade
From Back In the Day Until Now – How We’ve Been Pitted & Used Against Each Other1
In the 1600 and 1700’s European slave traders paid some African tribes money to capture other
tribes and enslave them.
In the 1920’s when many African Americans migrated from the agricultural South to the industrial
North, African Americans found it hard to get hired in factory jobs. However, when working class
Whites went on strike, factory owners hired African Americans at lower cost to break the strikes.
This fueled racial tensions even when the working class whites had more in interests in common
with African American workers than the white factory owners.
In the early 1900’s when sugar cane workers struck in Hawaii, farm owners successively brought in
another ethnicity to break the strike. In 1909, when Japanese workers struck for higher wages, the
farm owners brought in new immigrant Pilipino workers to break the strike. Owners kept different
ethnicities from uniting by paying each ethnicity a little differently. It wasn’t until the 1920’s when
the ethnicity-based unions decided to form a coalition based on class that the Japanese and
Pilipino sugar cane workers united and won an end to pay differences, increased wages, and
several other important demands.
In the early 1970’s during the beginning phases of creating the Ethnic Studies Department at the
University of California at Berkeley, the Third World Liberation Front initially forwarded a proposal
for a Third World College with four programs: Afro-American Studies, Chicano Studies, Asian
American Studies, and Native American Studies. However the University refused to negotiate with
the Ethnic Studies Department as a whole and instead dealt with each program separately. As a
result of this separate negotiation process, the Afro-American Studies program selected to move to
the College of Letters and Sciences and got status as a full fledged department whereas the other
ethnic studies programs remain under the Ethnic Studies Department all the way until today.
Cops have been known to instigate gang conflict by picking up a member of one set and dropping
them off in another set’s territory.
During the L.A. riots, the City of Los Angeles made a concerted plan to protect the (mostly white)
wealthy areas while leaving the ghettos un-patrolled and unprotected. Korean vs. African
American conflict was allowed to happen and it was in fact high lighted in order to take attention off
of the police brutality that led to the riots in the first place.
Workers born in America are often told that immigrants are taking away their jobs. In this way,
working class African Americans and whites are kept from uniting with Asian, Raza, and African
immigrants.
1
Sources: African American Migration www.nebraskastudies.org, Ronald Takaki quoted in
opmanong.ssc.hawaii.edu/filipino/plantation.html, ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/chronology/
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Tools of the Trade – So How Do “They” Get Us to Hate Each Other Even When It’s Against
Our Personal Interest?
Giving one group a few more crumbs. Remember the pieces of the pie and how we get more
desperate the more oppressed we are – we’re hungry! We lack resources! So, it’s no surprise that
giving some groups a LITTLE bit more resources will start the whole crabs in a bucket effect of
infighting. This happens in the form of better pay, more jobs, more access to educational success
or other kinds of success or supports.
Mis-education and brainwashing. In this country, we hardly know about ourselves and our own
histories. We are fed misrepresentations and stereotypes about our people. Well, that’s exactly
how other ethnic groups are learning about your ethnic group: through the same crazy inaccurate
stereotypes put out there about you in the media, school systems, and other outlets. We are
systematically not taught (or taught misinformation) about the histories of different people of color
in this country. If we were taught our histories – it would become SO CLEAR that each of us have
so much more in common than we think in terms of our experience with struggling and resisting
oppression. Also, we would learn about how our people’s have worked together in the past. This
information is perhaps the most threatening to the powers that be.
Flipping the Script
Our history is full of examples when people of different ethnic backgrounds acted in solidarity and
support of each other. Here are just a few examples….
Frederick Douglass expressed support for Chinese immigrants and spoke out against Anti-Chinese
Exclusion in the 1860’s. At that time, the Chinese were considered the “Niggers of the West.”
Native Americans regularly assisted and provided a home for escaped slaves. In the South,
descendants of escaped slaves living with Native Americans were most common among the
Seminoles who were aided in their war against the United States by Black generals and soldiers.
Japanese and Pilipino sugar cane workers united to form a cane worker’s union in the 1920’s in
Hawaii.
Third World Strike in the late 1960’s in Berkeley, California where students from African American,
Asian, Chicano, and Native American groups united to fight for the creation of Ethnic Studies.
Vietnamese and African American community organizations in New Orleans have teamed up to
fight for the right to return and rebuild New Orleans. Recently, Citizens for A Stronger New
Orleans East, a coalition made up of Vietnamese and African American-led organizations won the
closure of a toxic landfill for Katrina debris in their neighborhood.
The United Farm Workers Union formed in 1966 from two unions: one that was primarily Raza
centered founded by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez and another that was primarily Pilipino
centered founded by Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Iltliong. When the two unions realized they had
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common interests, they united and launched a 5-year boycott of table grapes that won a contract
with the grape growers of California.
Appendix D: Flipping the Script Gallery Walk Photos
Will the arts person develop this portion – just get pictures that correspond to the “Flipping the
Script” bullet points.
Appendix E: Bridge Building Scenario (HR 4437)
Note: This scenario simplifies HR 4437 so participants do not need to spend so much time learning
the specifics of the bill and can instead practice coalition building.
Major Provisions of HR 4437
The following is a summary of the major provisions of H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, AntiTerrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. The legislation passed the House of
Representatives 239-182 on Friday, December 16, 2005.

Anyone or any organization who “assists” an individual without documentation “to reside in
or remain” in the United States knowingly or with “reckless disregard” as to the individual’s
legal status would be liable for criminal penalties and five years in prison. This could
include church personnel who provide shelter or other basic needs assistance to an
undocumented individual. Property used in this act would be subject to seizure and
forfeiture.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be required to erect up to 700 miles of
fencing along the Southwest border at points with the highest number of immigrant deaths.

State and local law enforcement are authorized to enforce federal immigration laws. State
and local governments which refuse to participate would be subject to the loss of federal
funding.
SCENARIO
Note: Give Everyone Is Illegal members and organizers the Handout Myths About Immigrants
(Appendix 1)
Organizer and members of Everyone Is Illegal
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You are a member of a central valley community in California. There are many immigrants,
undocumented and documented, in your area. Your organization is two years old and many
people don’t know about you or what you do. Your membership is entirely Raza. After the
passage of HR 4437 in December 2005, your organization began mobilizing for the March 1, 2006
Day Without An Immigrant. You look around your city and see a number of Asian people, mostly
Laotian and Hmong refugees and immigrants, as well as some African Americans who recently
moved from bigger urban centers. Turns out, besides straight up street outreach and door
knocking, the main community institutions in the other ethnic communities are the Laotian Family
Organization and the African American Church.
You hope to bring other ethnic groups into a coalition to support the Boycott on March 1, 2006.
Complete the Key Questions and Levels of Support Sheet in order to get prepared to do some
meetings with the leaders of the other key ethnic groups about the Boycott.
African American Church Congregation Leaders
Your church is small and growing – just like the African American community in the central valley
as a whole. You want to create a support network for the incoming families so they can have local
resources and relationships although they are new to the area. This is particularly important
because many of the families come from cities with much larger African American populations with
ethnic specific supports and services (cultural foods, hair salons, churches, health and other
programs). In the central valley, you feel African Americans are marginalized. Similarly, you
believe that much of the push out of urban areas comes from immigrants moving in and working at
very low wages. You often feel that people come to the Black community asking for support but
you have not seen other ethnic communities offering to support Black families in the area. For
example, there was a severe police brutality incident where a young African American man was
maimed a year ago and the small number of people protesting this incident were all African
American.
What is most important to you is that African Americans do not continue to experience cultural and
political marginalization in the central valley. You are also concerned that other ethnic
communities also contribute to supporting the African American community on issues of
importance to you.
Laotian Family Organization
Your family organization has up to 200 members – and it is networked with other family
organizations belonging to other Lao family clans. Your organization is set up mostly to support
families in navigating American society and different community resources. You are just beginning
to get involved in local politics although many of your members have not gained full citizenship yet.
You would like to be involved more in politics but you feel your membership, who mainly come from
an experience on the farm in their home country of Laos, would need a lot of education and training
to understand the issues.
There has not been a lot of talk about the immigration issue in your community. With so few
resources, you don’t see what the whole immigration issue has to do with the Lao community and
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wonder what you will get out of joining any coalition. You would prefer to use your time and energy
addressing something your membership feels is important. Most of your members are still involved
in farming in the central valley and a major issue right now is the community’s youth. Many of them
seem to be turning to gangs and drugs and the older generation doesn’t know what to do about it.
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Appendix F: Principles for Successful Coalitions & Levels of Support
What is a coalition?
Typically a coalition is when two or more organizations join to reach at least one mutual goal. A
multi-racial or multi-ethnic coalition is one where organizations that are part of the coalition have
memberships of different ethnicities and races.
Principles for Successful Coalitions2
Choose Unifying Issues
A common issue, not just a desire to work together on each other’s separate campaigns or
agendas, is a must.
Understand and Respect Organizational Self-Interest
Each organization in a coalition has it’s own history, purpose, values, culture and relationships. Its
important for all members of the coalition to understand each other and their self interests.
Help Organizations to Achieve Their Self Interest
Organizations need to believe that they are benefiting from a coalition. Some examples of ways a
coalition can help organizations are: gaining new members, being seen as powerful (when allied
with other more established groups), getting media coverage, building relationships with other
groups, providing members with an exciting program or activities, building empowerment of
members, giving leaders a public role.
Agree to Disagree
Member organizations of a coalitions almost never agree on all issues. Focus on the common
agenda and agree to avoid the issues on which you do not agree.
Spread the Credit Evenly and Fairly
Recognize all members for being part of the coalition. One or several organizations taking credit
for the work of the coalition often creates tension and makes others not want to work with those
organizations again.
Meet Organizations Where They Are
Member organizations can support a coalition in different ways depending on their own strengths
and weaknesses as well as how much they support the common issue. Making clear levels of
support for different organizations to sign on to allows for organizations to enter into the coalition in
a way that suits them. (see next page: Levels of Support of a Coalition)
2
Adapted from Organizing for Social Change, Midwest Academy Manual for Activists,
2001
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Key Questions to Answer When Recruiting Coalition Members

What is the common issue that we would like to work with them on?

What makes this issue important to this potential coalition member? How does the
common issue impact their members or community? What values, purpose, or history of
this organization could we appeal to?

What does this potential coalition member want for it’s own organization? How can the
coalition help this potential member achieve one or some of it’s goals?

Where might the potential coalition member disagree with other organizations? Can we
agree to disagree on these issues?

What are the different ways that this organization could support the coalition? What level
of support could this potential member give?

What kinds of culturally based miscommunications or difficulties might arise? What types
of training may we need to do for our different memberships to foster multi-racial
understanding and unity?
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Levels of Support of the Coalition
A good way to be able to involve a broad range of organizations in your coalition is to have levels
of support or membership that gives them a choice of being really involved or only a little involved.
Their level of involvement could depend on what they have the energy to do at this time, the priority
they put on the issue being addressed by the coalition, and a host of other factors. But, being able
to give them room in the coalition helps to build relationship and trust for further work in the future.
In the below Levels of Support Triangle, an organization’s level of support in the coalition
corresponds to the level of decision making that the organization gets to be a part of in the
coalition. This means that organizations who are more involved (higher on the level of support) get
more say in the coalition.






More involved
More
responsibilities
as member of
the coalition
More decision
making power
in the coalition
Less involved
Less
responsibilities
as member of
the coalition
Less decision
making power
in the coalition
Level of Support
& Responsibility
Decision
Making
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Example of Level of Support Triangle
This is an example of how a coalition might decide to structure it’s levels of support.
Coalition Lead:
Provide staffing and
basic resources to
coalition, attend
every coalition
meeting
Coalition Lead:
Make final decisions
about strategy and
tactics for coalition
campaign
Coalition Core
Member:
Assign one person to
attend coalition
general meetings,
turn people out to
major actions
Coalition Core
Member:
Assist in
brainstorming and
giving feedback
about strategy and
tactics for coalition
campaign
Coalition General
Member:
Sign organization on
to the coalition
campaign
Coalition General
Member:
Read emails and
communications for
updates on coalition
work, allow use of
organization name on
flyers and actions
Level of Support
& Responsibility
Decision
Making
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Blank Levels of Support Triangle
Level of Support
& Responsibility
Decision
Making