U.S. demographic shift may alter Black-Hispanic relations
Mireya Navarro, New York Times
Published January 25, 2004 DEMO25
A singular moment in U.S. demographics has produced a range of hopes
and worries nationwide. Last summer, the Census Bureau announced that
Hispanics had surpassed blacks as the country's largest minority, with
blacks making up 13.1 percent of the population in 2002 and Hispanics
13.4 percent.
That statistical shift, years in the making, came as no surprise. Yet
it has captured the attention of both Hispanics and blacks, who have
been grappling with its meaning in meeting rooms, on radio shows and
on the Internet.
Those conversations have raised hard questions: Does the ascendance of
Hispanics mean a decline in the influence of blacks? Does it doom, or
encourage, alliances between the two groups? Does the old formula for
those alliances -- shared grievances -- have much meaning given the
diversity of income and status even within each group?
The rising number of Hispanics has not escaped the notice of whites
or other groups, whether in business or politics. President Bush's
recent proposal to grant temporary visas to illegal immigrants is seen
by many as just the latest effort to woo the Hispanic vote. But many
blacks and Hispanic Americans say the demographic milestone has
special meaning for the nation's two largest minority groups, forcing
them to reassess a relationship that has sometimes brought
cooperation, sometimes conflict.
A force already
Many Hispanics feel their growing numbers have finally grabbed the
notice of black leaders.
"They realize we're a force to be reckoned with already," said Lou
Sobh, chairman of the National Association of Hispanic Automobile
Dealers. "There are some African-Americans that are going to see us as
a threat, but a lot see the necessity of using each other."
Sobh's group agreed last year to merge with the black-led National
Association of Minority Automobile Dealers after receiving assurances
that the Hispanics would be equal partners.
"The census was just something that demanded the focus of attention of
anyone involved in business," said Sheila Vaden-Williams, president of
the latter association. Uniting with the Hispanic group, she said, can
help her members appeal to the growing Hispanic market and persuade
carmakers to raise the proportion of new-car dealerships owned by
minorities to 15 percent from the current 5 percent.
Not every discussion has been so fruitful. When a panel of blacks and
Hispanics gathered last fall at the annual meeting of the
Congressional Black Caucus to address the issue -- "How Will the
Growth of the Hispanic Population Affect the African-American
Community?" -- many people came away unhappy.
One panelist, Arturo Vargas, the executive director of the National
Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said afterward
that he felt "a degree of anger" over the hostility he sensed in
questions from the mostly black audience about his stance on such
matters as illegal immigration and reparations for blacks.
The ill feeling has some people worried. Troubled by the way some news
reports portrayed the new statistics as if Hispanics were in a horse
race against blacks, the Institute for Multiracial Justice in San
Francisco, an organization that encourages better relations between
ethnic groups, persuaded 45 Hispanic artists, professors and community
leaders from around the country to sign an open letter "to our
African-American brothers and sisters."
"In the Latino community," it said, "we will combat the
competitiveness that could feed on those headlines."
The letter, sent last summer to black-oriented Web sites and published
by several newspapers, got the biggest reaction in places with large
black populations where the Hispanic population has soared, said
Elizabeth Martinez, the institute's director. "You have neighborhoods
that used to be all black and are now half Latino," she said. "People
go into a hotel in Georgia, and the chambermaids used to be black and
now they're Latina. The feeling is that they're taking over."
Agreement on issues
But many blacks and Hispanics say that no two racial or ethnic groups
could benefit as much from collaboration. The two find powerful common
ground in their disproportionate numbers of the country's poor and
their organizations' agreement on a long list of policy issues,
including support for affirmative action and changes in the criminal
justice system.
In major cities like New York and Chicago, the two groups together
make up the majority of the population.
But while there has been much joint work by black and Hispanic
national groups around specific issues, alliances do not come
naturally. In many places, the two groups have battled over political
representation, jobs and public funding.
Nicolas C. Vaca, a sociologist and lawyer in California, argues in his
new book, "The Presumed Alliance: The Unspoken Conflict Between
Latinos and Blacks and What It Means for America" (Rayo, 2004), that
the groups should not be expected to join forces automatically, given
their differences and the tendency of ethnic groups in this country to
look out for their own interests.
Some paramount concerns for many Hispanic organizations, such as
legalizing the status of illegal immigrants, conflict with those of
black groups, such as the loss of unskilled jobs to those Hispanic
workers, Vaca noted. And in places where one group dominates, as
Latinos do in Miami and blacks do in Compton, Calif., he said, neither
has shown more consideration for the other in sharing appointments and
programs than when they had much less power.
"Whether you're an African-American in the South, or a Latino in
California, you have the right to advance your own agenda," Vaca said.
"To the extent they can do it cooperatively, great. To the extent they
can't, they're going to have to work out some kind of strategy to
avoid conflict."
.
|
