End of the Rainbow

The American Conservative ^ | December 19, 2005 | Roger D. McGrath

[rmlew]

South Central Los Angeles ushers in a new era of racial tension—this time between blacks and Hispanics.

Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition has a ways to go in Los Angeles, where Mexicans and blacks are killing each other at record rates. The action is particularly hot in South Central Los Angeles and in nearby Compton, two areas that have undergone a dramatic shift during the last two decades from virtually all black to half or more Hispanic.

Most of the schools in these areas are now majority Latino, something I could not possibly have imagined when I was in high school in the early 1960s. By that time South Central and Compton had made a transition from virtually all white during the 1930s to virtually all black. They remained that way into the late 1970s, when the effects of illegal immigration from Mexico first began to be felt. By the 1990s, entire neighborhoods had been transformed. Terry Anderson, a black auto mechanic from South Central, describes what it was like at the end of the decade:

Today, teenagers can’t get after-school or entry-level jobs—something to put on a resume. When I was 16 and 17, I had jobs at McDonald’s, Burger King, Jack in the Box. Now these jobs in L.A. are held by 30- or 40-year-old immigrants—100% Spanish-speaking and probably 90% from Mexico.

[Rytwyng]

most Mexicans are as white as most Italians.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????????????

I rarely see a Mexican with easily recognizable Indians traits (Inca type appearance) here in America

That's just about the ONLY kind I see around here. I'm in Southern California -- where are you? Perhaps your immigration is coming from a totally different region or subpopulation within Mexico?

Whenever I see what I think is a "white Mexican" -- light skin, sometimes blue or green eyes, but Spanish speaking -- that person is almost invariably actually a Guatemalan.