The Black-Brown Divide

Time ^ | Jan. 26, 2008 | GREGORY RODRIGUEZ

[PRePublic]

The Black-Brown Divide

By GREGORY RODRIGUEZ

Jan. 26, 2008

I imagine he said it as if he were confessing a deep, dark secret. And, of course (wink, wink), he had no idea his little confession would make the rounds. But when Sergio Bendixen, Hillary Clinton's pollster and resident Latino expert, told the New Yorker after her win in New Hampshire that "the Hispanic voter--and I want to say this very carefully--has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates," he started a firestorm of innuendo that has begun to shape how the media are covering the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in the heavily Hispanic Western states.

After the Jan. 19 Nevada caucuses, in which Latino voters supported Senator Clinton by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1, some journalists literally borrowed Bendixen's analysis word for word before going on to speculate about Barack Obama's political fortunes in such delegate-rich states as California and Texas. Ignoring the possibility that Nevada's Latino voters actually preferred Clinton or, at the very least, had fond memories of her husband's presidency, more than a few pundits jumped on the idea that Latino voters simply didn't like the fact that her opponent was African American.

The only problem with this new conventional wisdom is that it's wrong. "It's one of those unqualified stereotypes about Latinos that people embrace even though there's not a bit of data to support it," says political scientist Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount University, an expert on Latino voting patterns. "Here in Los Angeles, all three black members of Congress represent heavily Latino districts and couldn't survive without significant Latino support."

[Seruzawa]

You don’t have to live in L.A. very long to discover the immense animosity between the two groups. Pretending it ain’t so won’t make it go away. Since the Rats have specialized in keeping the races separate and distrustful of each other they now get to sleep in their own bed.

[PRePublic]

Correct!
Those that say "it's only between gangs" have no idea about the animosity between them in their mainstream, the term: "negro" [the 'e' pronounced as the 'e' in "bell"] does not associate too much love especially by many Mexicans and Cubans.

[Parley Baer]

Just what I was going to post when I saw the headline. You are correct in that the streets of Los Angeles show how deep the divide is. Of course to be covered up by the msm.

[tom h]

"the immense animosity between the two groups"

But ... but ... I thought that "diversity is our strength" and that "diversity works".

[rellimpank]

—yeah—putting it into the vernacular, lots of (blank) won’t vote for a (blank)——

[chicagolady]

According to the African Americans in L.A. The Mexicans are the NEW KU KLUX KLAN with the TAN!! Sounds right to me!!

[mamelukesabre]

So the blacks vote for the black guy, the white women and the hispanics vote for hillary, and the white men vote for john edwards. It looks like hillary will win then.

When she does, does this mean the blacks will finally start voting republican in the general?

[PRePublic]

-—Just my line of thinking...

[SouthTexas]

I wondered when this little issue was going to surface.

[ajay_kumar]

The Hispanics are not just one racial group. There are hispanics with blue eyes and blonde hair (I dated one such Mexican gal in my youth), there are the majority racial mix of indigenous Indians with some Spaniard blood thrown in, and there is the group with African blood mixed in. It is a stretch to think they all think and act alike.

[Dick Vomer]

...... animosity between them in their mainstream, the term: "negro" [the 'e' pronounced as the 'e' in "bell"] does not associate too much love especially by many Mexicans and Cubans......

I always thought it was pronounced "Mayate"