Instead of quietly observing her subjects from afar, sociology professor Judith Blau has rented an apartment in the middle of their community.
After founding the Chapel Hill and Carrboro Human Rights Center in a majority Latino apartment complex, she’s working to make it a place immigrants will turn for community support.
“I think it’s an example of radical hospitality,” said Hugo Olaiz, an Abbey Court Condominiums resident who works with Blau.
“One thing is to go where the poor live and help them out. Another thing is to say, ‘This is my home, and I’m inviting people in,’ and this is what she’s doing,” he said.
The center, in Abbey Court Condominiums on Jones Ferry Road, officially formed in February but is now launching its programs.
Involving her students in the social and economic justice minor, Blau’s center hosts youth soccer programs, parent-teacher nights, computer classes and English classes, all with the goal of promoting human rights.
“Human rights is not about legislation,” Olaiz said.
“Human rights is about what happens to you after a long day of work, or what happens to your children while you’re working or what happens to you when you do not have a job.”
Blau said it’s been a challenge to build trust and become a well-known part of the community.
Many Abbey Court residents don’t know the center exists, often confusing it with El Centro Latino in downtown Carrboro.
One man, Juan Allalo, said that his wife had been to the center a number of times.
“She’s used it a few times to ask questions about various problems,” Allalo said in Spanish.
“I am not surprised that few in Abbey Court know about us,” Blau stated in an e-mail.
“The kids who have come to the center, and those who have come to our barbecue, and the men who have come to play dominoes and use the computer, probably do not have a sense of what the center is, as an entity.”
Blau is hoping to connect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a United Nations document she teaches in her classes, to the everyday human rights of the immigrant community.
“We’re located in the poorest immigrant community in the county,” Blau said, emphasizing the need that the center is serving.
And with her students as collaborators, Blau is also creating a unique service-learning class.
“The center is bridging that gap between largely middle class UNC students and extremely poor immigrants,” she said.
Senior Vanice Dunn, who has taken Blau’s classes and helped develop the center, said she thinks it’s an opportunity for students to get involved in the community.
“The University may be just a mile or so from Abbey Court, but the disconnect between students and the community often feels much farther than that,” she said.
Dunn is working on a human rights survey on and off campus to get a better idea of what human rights means to community members.
She is also helping Blau and the center with a Walk for Human Rights to be held Sept. 12.
The center is beginning a partnership with Mary Scroggs Elementary School and is awaiting the donation of new computers from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School system.
Despite the new possibilities the center presents, it still has a long way to go in letting people know about these opportunities, Blau said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
