Last Tuesday at the New Mexico Black Leadership Council’s (NMBLC) headquarters at 1314 Madeira Dr. SE, local business owners, city leaders and public safety organizations gathered to celebrate a year of economic growth and community engagement in the International District, a neighborhood that has one of the highest population densities in the state and arguably contains the city’s most resilient residents. We are all familiar with the area: It’s tough, it’s diverse, and it’s busy. But it’s full of life. To say that the International District doesn’t represent New Mexico doesn’t just ignore the beauty that exists within the approximately 3.9-square-mile area bounded by San Mateo, Lomas, Wyoming and Gibson, it’s statistically inaccurate. And let’s be honest, to romantically depict New Mexico as a place where only Indigenous, brown and white people exist in a weird American microcosm reminiscent of a 1950s Western is delusional at best. According to the New Mexico Black Leadership Council, 68,000 black people live in New Mexico, and more than half of them call Albuquerque home.
“The 87108 zip code probably has the highest population of blacks in the entire state, and certainly 60% of blacks who live in New Mexico live in Central New Mexico, primarily in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties,” NMBLC founder and president Cathryn McGill says. “So, it makes sense for us to come to the heart of this space where we have more than 28 languages spoken, that has the highest population density of anywhere in the state, to say that if we can create programs that work here, that they will be replicable anywhere across the state. If we can make it here, we can make it anywhere.”
Sage Council
The NMBLC is a local 501 C3 social nonprofit organization that aims to build sustainable leadership and progressive, multicultural partnerships empowering African American and other communities of color. In 2011 the New Mexico Black History Organizing Committee was founded by McGill, as a coalition of like-minded individuals who understood that black people have been historically excluded from the political, social and cultural landscape in New Mexico. In 2019 the NMBLC was formed to continue that mission. Tuesday’s event celebrated the one-year anniversary of the International District Engagement and Support (IDeas) Network, an initiative designed to showcase the strengths of businesses within the International District through an online business directory, periodic meetings and public events. According to McGill, at its core, the IDeas Network provides an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to rub elbows with other business owners in the area, discuss what works and what doesn’t, and leverage collective resources to impact the community while improving everyone’s overall financial situation.
“The IDeas Network is about weaving together all of the collective stories,” McGill says. “How can the NMBLC [act] as an intermediary and a bridge builder? We’ve got 15 people with the same issue, and we got a bunch of big brains. What can we do about it? Another part of it is to shift the narrative about this community that we’ve chosen to live, work and play in. For us to be able to say who we are and not be defined by what we consider to be misrepresentations of the real great things that happen in this neighborhood. And in some cases it’s our own internalized oppression.”
In just 12 months, the Black Leadership Council says the Network has sparked meaningful partnerships — with the Albuquerque Police Department, Albuquerque Community Safety Department and dozens of local entrepreneurs — that have helped small businesses in the ID not just survive, but grow.
All the Cultures
The pledge to the New Mexico state flag says that the Zia symbol is “a symbol of perfect friendship among united cultures,” something that the NMBLC aims to truly achieve in a modern context. Especially in neighborhoods such as the International District, the outdated “tri-cultural myth” simply does not fit – and if history has taught us anything, it never really did. McGill says the NMBLC brings other cultures into the forefront of political discourse in New Mexico and addresses the adverse effects of failing to live up to what our flag represents.
“In order for us to operationalize that aspirational goal, the New Mexico Black Leadership council should work on ensuring that black communities are fully engaged in the political, social and cultural landscape in New Mexico, and that we are a state then where we have overcome the tri-cultural narrative and lived up to what our state flag says, and that we can truly say with courage and conviction that we’re a state where everyone belongs,” McGill says.
There are two notable projects the NMBLC wrapped up in the last few months. True New Mexico is a partnership project the NMBLC started with the New Mexico Asian Family Center (NMAFC) and features the Photo Voice Program. McGill says because of the dual anti-blackness and anti-Asian sentiments within many New Mexico communities, oppression among communities of color had become an issue. Furthermore, McGill felt like our young people were growing up invisible in the political, social and cultural landscape in New Mexico. McGill says the program has continued over the past five years, and is gaining traction…