Ironically, Blacks have found themselves locking arms with conservative Republicans on the most critical and divisive issue in American politics today: illegal immigration. And, of course, their most ardent foes on this polarizing issue are Hispanics and Democrats. Therefore, it’s not surprising that simmering cultural biases, which once made the political alliance between Blacks and Hispanics tenuous at best, have now erupted into open hostilities.
Moreover, it has only exacerbated tensions that Hispanics (at 14.1% of the population, and multiplying like rabbits) have now usurped Blacks (at 12.8%, and relatively barren) as the most significant voting bloc in U.S. politics. And leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) must have felt completely dissed last week when former President Bill Clinton and President Bush’s chief advisor Karl Rove both made solicitous overtures to Hispanics at the annual meeting of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Hispanic civil rights group in the country.
NOTE: I feel obliged to stress that this growing schism between Blacks and Hispanics is not based solely on political pragmatism. Because it is fostered by a virulent stream of racial prejudice against Blacks by Hispanics, which rivals the historical prejudice Whites have displayed against them.
Indeed, it’s also not surprising that gang warfare rages more between Blacks and Hispanics than between Blacks and Whites (or Whites and Hispanics)….
NCAAP Blacks, NCLR (La Raza) Hispanics
Noel S says
That Duke study was based on responses by a predominantly Mexican immigrant population who’s country does not have a large black population.
If the study was done in New York City, where the latino population is made up of, predominantly, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans who have large populations of blacks in their respective countries; would the poll have turned out differantly?
I don’t think that Dukes poll should say that this is a representation of the way most latinos feel about blacks.
If they were to ask me if I had more in common with a black person or a white person; speaking as a latino, I would say black. A Mexican or Argentinian would probaly say white.
Noel
ALH ipinions says
You make a fair point Noel.
Indeed, I have no doubt that many North Eastern Latinos (primarily from Puerto Rico) feel as you do.
But the vast majority of Latinos in America are from the places (“Mexico, Argentina”, other SA countries and Cuba ) where attitudes against blacks are as even you indicated: decidedly pro-white (and anti-black).
Indeed, one needs only spend a little time in Miami (and here I can provide personal anecdotal evidence) or South Central LA to appreciate the dynamics that confirm the virulent stream of racial prejudice I cite.
Let me hasten to add, however, that, although perhaps not with equal force, this stream flows in the opposite direction too….