Roundtable Guests:
Max Rivlin-Nadler, reporter, KPBS News
Kristen Taketa, education reporter, San Diego Union-Tribune
African migrants protest treatment by Mexican authorities in Tijuana
Migrants from Cameroon have been waiting in Tijuana for more than two months to cross into the U.S. to seek asylum. Most are members of the English-speaking minority, which has faced intense persecution since 2016. They traveled north from South and Central America and arrived in Tijuana destitute. This week, they blocked the path of Mexican vans transporting migrants to the U.S. because they say, Central Americans have been paying bribes to Mexican officials, who call their numbers and skip over the Africans. Eight African asylum seekers met this week with Mexican officials who wanted the protest to end. They were said to have worked out an agreement to make sure the correct numbers were being called.
Related: Migrants From Cameroon Protest Immigration Process In Tijuana
Racial tensions at Southwestern College continue
At Southwestern College in Chula Vista, tensions between black and Latinx employees have been ongoing since the 1990s. Recently, the tensions have worsened and spread to the student body. Black employees and students believe there is an anti-black sentiment and active discrimination on campus. They cite a 2018 report by USC researchers which found the atmosphere at Southwestern to be one of the “most toxic” they had studied, especially for black classified employees. Southwestern's President Kindred Murillo, on the job for two-and-a-half years, has had to deal with dozens of investigations into financial problems and Title IX violations. Now she and the college's board of trustees are dealing with charges of racism.