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Veralucia Mendoza: Letter to the Editor
In Response to Larry Sykes:
Councilman Sykes wrote a
column about the North Toledo shooting that involved a
police officer and young man, about my age.
Mr. Sykes begins his
paragraph about me by stating “A Caucasian female approached
me,” already misrepresenting me. I’m Afro-Latina.
Afro-Latinos are black folks from Latin America, which means
his ancestors and mine landed on different ends of the
Western world, but both came from the continent of Africa. I
am African and Indigenous. I have never identified as
Caucasian.
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Veralucia
Mendoza and her father |
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The woman that he mentions
as loudly using profanities was arguing with him, but not
unprompted. She was openly mourning as she had recently
buried a family member, a young Black man, and this shooting
triggered a response in her. As the woman openly wept, I saw
Mr. Sykes look at her directly, smiling. She said, “Don’t
look at me all smug,” and he laughed. At this point, I
approached him. I confronted him about his behavior to laugh
in the face of a hurting woman, especially for someone who
claims to be pro-community.
In the midst of all of
this he took a step toward me. Remembering that he had an
altercation with Julian Mack, I asked him if he would hit
me, too. As you can see in the Councilman’s column, he
proudly bragged about choking him. He laughed and adjusted
his hat. This is when I noticed the Chief Wahoo logo.
We all know by now that
“Indians” is not the proper term for Indigenous people whom
were here before Columbus arrived. He thought he landed in
India and used the incorrect term; this is something we all
learned in school and Mr. Sykes’ use of the word is
inaccurate. I did tell him the hat is offensive, as no one
would like it if we saw caricatures of Black men on sports
teams’ logos. I told him the logo has racist history, though
I didn’t call him racist directly. In addition, he said he
learned I was with Black Lives Matter, I would like to
highlight that there is no official BLM chapter in Toledo.
In conclusion, I believe
Mr. Sykes named me in order to incite anger against me. To
portray me as Caucasian is a direct attempt to strip me of
my culture and my work within Black and Brown communities.
To assume I am not Black because I’m not American-born is
xenophobic and shows a lack of understanding of the African
diaspora and the history of slavery. In addition, I have
lived in America, Toledo specifically for 18 years. I grew
up in North Toledo, on the corner of Sherman and Stickney,
and I went to the scene of the shooting because it mattered
deeply to me.
As for Mr. Sykes, I leave
him with this quote from Angela Y. Davis, “You can't assume
that making a difference 20 years ago is going to allow you
to sort of live on the laurels of those victories for the
rest of your life.” Mr. Sykes, as an elected official, we
expect better.
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