SDVPorganized a Families Belong Together Rally, Sioux Falls, 2018. (courtesy photo)
by Katy Beem Taneeza Islam, Executive Director, South Dakota Voices for Peace.
This year Latino (increasingly referred to with the gender-neutral “Latinx”) are projected to be the country’s largest voting-eligible ethnicity. Because voters in Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Florida could determine the next United States president, engaging these state’s sizable Latino voters is a high priority for both parties. But Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground, premiering this month on SDPB, demonstrates the folly in wooing voters based on cultural assumptions. Recent data and polling are demonstrating traditional views around voters of color and their conservative or liberal leanings are anything but monolithic. Taneeza Islam is the Executive Director of South Dakota Voices for Peace (SDVP). SDVP formed in 2017 in response to that year’s state legislative session, which Islam says included several antiMuslim and anti-refugee bills. SDVP formally incorporated when anti-Muslim and anti-refugee events persisted in South Dakota, says Islam. Since then, the organization has grown to provide free legal representation for children in immigration court and immigrant domestic violence survivors. SDVP also undertakes education, advocacy, and civic engagement for and about South Dakota’s refugees and immigrants. “We don’t delineate between ethnic origin when it comes to this work,” says Islam. “But clearly our largest immigrant population in South Dakota is Latinx. We serve all of our immigrant communities, documented and undocumented. I would safely say 90% of our clients are Latinx.” SDVP’s mission extends to Get Out the Vote work, including providing messaging in multiple languages. This year, SDVP received additional funding to hire a consultant who is helping SDVP become more strategic in engaging eligible voters throughout South
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