Essay In Black and Brown

Essay in Black and Brown

 

The current presidential election has brought to the forefront the alliance and/or tension between the Latino/Hispanic community and the African-American/Black community in America. Since the 1960’s, we have presumed that these two ethnic groups were allied politically, and in many major cities across the country they shared the same urban space in relative harmony. In many communities music, clothing and words mixed as recent and multi-generational immigrants from Latin countries cohabitated with Blacks in the ghettos of America. Black musical performers dating back to the Jazz age have incorporated Latin rhythms into their music, and Hispanic kids nationwide mimic the dress and music of African-American Hip-Hop artist. While critical alliances on Capitol Hill between the Hispanic and Black Caucuses have influenced legislative victories and defeats.

 

However, the current debate creates a landscape that has shifted from the unifying struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez to political conflicts and gang warfare.

In the recent Democratic primary election, Latino’s consistently supported Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. Some political pundits attributed this to the strong ties that the Latino community has with the Clinton’s, while others alluded to the perceived conflict between the two ethnic groups in communities across the country. Some began to discuss the Nevada Phenomenon after the January primary in the state, pointing at Latino voter’s indifference towards a Black candidate for president, attributed to urban power and economic struggles over the past forty years.

 

Presumed Alliance

 

Nicolas Vaca in his book, Presumed Alliance, addressed the very issue of the “presumed” political alliance of the African-American and the Hispanic/Latino communities. I must admit that when I first started reading the book, after hearing Vaca do an NPR interview, I was worried that the perspective would be slanted towards one group or another. Vaca was partially motivated to write the book was his observances of a lack of Latino’s in governmental agency positions as compared to Blacks. I was also concerned about the traditional intra-ethnic dilemma of airing ones dirty laundry in public, stretched across the perceived joint alliance of Black’s and Latino’s, which has been criticized by others in both communities.

 

Vaca initially makes the case for Latino contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, and in particular Brown vs. the Board of Education. He eventually begins to carefully outline the history of several political Black vs. Brown political contest, while putting the recent historical ethnic relationships in context. 

 

In particular, Vaca examined the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race; the 2001 Houston mayoral race; and political and ethnic relations in New York City, and Miami. In Houston, Orlando Sánchez challenged Lee Brown the incumbent, African-American mayor. Sánchez was of Cuban descent, Anglo looking, and Republican. He was not Mexican and a Democrat like the majority of Houston’s Latino population. Sánchez, who had previously been branded anti-Hispanic by the Latino political establishment, was supported by 72 percent of the Latino vote. In the race, it became clear that the desire to have one of our “own” in place to the Latino community was more important than electing a politician who would better serve their community. This was the result despite having the support of 75 percent of Latino business, political and community leaders. Brown managed to narrowly retain his seat through a coalition of African-American’s and Caucasians.

 

In 2001, African-American’s in Los Angeles formed a political alliance with conservative whites from the San Fernando Valley to elect James Hahn Mayor of Los Angeles over current mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. This alliance was rooted in African-American’s allegiance to Hahn’s late father Kenneth, who represented a large portion of the L.A. Black community for years in local government. Kenneth Hahn was responsible for benefiting many Black political, business and community leaders. Early in James Hahn’s term he would infuriate the African-American community by pushing out African-American police chief, Bernard Parks. In the rematch between Villaraigosa and Hahn four years later, the Black community would overwhelmingly support Villaraigosa and oust Hahn, forming the very alliance that Villaraigosa wrongly assumed four years earlier.

 

While Blacks continue to support the Democratic Party at a clip of 90%, Latino’s now support the Republican Party with over a third of their vote in presidential elections. According to exit polls, approximately 44% of Latino’s supported President Bush in 2004 and 35% in 2000. This can partially be attributed to the popularity and past moderate approach of now President Bush as Governor of Texas. Latino voters appear to be more likely to cross traditional party lines, despite policies that may not be in line with the best interest of their communities. However, one must not overlook that fact that the Latino/Hispanic community is not monolithic (neither is the Black community), and is made up of first, second, third and further generational groups, as well as, individuals descendent from Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Cuba, Columbia, Panama, etc., a sometimes disparate group of nationalities that are often only bound by a shared language, and relatively similar geographical origin.

 

Gangs: Turf or Ethnicity

 

I remember reading the L.A. Times several months after the rebellion in Los Angeles sparked by the Rodney King verdict. It covered the growing gang conflict in the Venice area of Los Angeles. This appeared to be strange on the surface, since the Black gangs had called a truce in the wake of the riots. But the conflict was not the historical Bloods versus Crips, it was Black vs. Brown.

In March of this year, a L.A. Times article appeared that asked the question, “Are Black vs. Brown race tensions driving homicide?” The statistics did not prove that this was the case. Though a few high profile crimes appear to be racially motivated, the article illustrated that 22 of 236 homicides in the 4 LAPD divisions that cover heavily concentrated Black and Latino gang areas; were Black on Brown or Brown on Black homicides. Consistently, over 90% of killings involved subjects of the same race. However, conflict did exist between each group over territory and revenge, which was similar to gangs of the same ethnic group. It also has been exacerbated by greater conflict in the growing California prison system, expanded drug markets and demographic and population shifts.

 

In July of this year the L.A. Times published another article examining the recent rise in hate crimes involving Latino’s and African-American’s. Based on the annual report of the Los Angeles County Human Rights Commission, hate crimes rose 28% and Latino’s against Blacks was number one followed by Blacks versus Latinos. The economic downturn and population density are seen as major contributors to this trend.

 

Jobs

 

Sometimes missing in this debate is the economic conflict centered on jobs within inner city communities. It is often perceived by the Black community that Latino’s and often non-citizens take jobs away from qualified African-American’s in those communities. Employers often tag Blacks as not wanting to take these often low paying jobs, and that they would not be as responsible or hard working as their Latino counterparts.

 

Nearly twenty years ago I worked briefly at a silk-screening plant in South Central Los Angeles in the neighborhood that my paternal grandmother still lives in. This neighborhood was and still is overwhelmingly Black, but the workers in the facility were overwhelmingly Latino. The only two African-American workers in the plant of nearly 100 workers were my cousin and I. In conversations with one of the plant managers, I also discovered that over 90% of the workers were undocumented and worked for less than minimum wage. In fact, I became the second highest paid worker in the plant on my first day, with no skills or background to do the work of building silk screens.

 

This brings focus to the conflict in many of these communities that have increased African-American opposition to illegal immigration, and surprisingly with Latino’s past the first generation of immigration. Many African-American’s perceive illegal immigrants as harming American jobs, according to an NAACP study.[1] However, the study also found that 61% of Blacks favor creating a path for undocumented immigrants to receive citizenship, if they paid fines, passed background checks and had jobs.

 

Where Do We Go?

 

As a father of a Black and Brown child, I would hope that the two communities could move from the gang friction and the divisiveness of racial politics and find a path to unify not only politically, but also within many of the communities that they share in Los Angeles, Oakland, Miami, Houston, New York, Chicago, and many other communities nationwide. The true political, economic and cultural power of these two largest ethnic groups in our great country could change the face of America. The key to the unifying these communities is in uniting them to erase the economic realities that are at the core of existing conflicts. If Black and Brown street gangs in L.A. can begin to integrate in the name of economics, so can the rank and file law abiding members of each community.

 

If both groups were not so endeared to Daddy Clinton, or the promises of key political positions in a Hillary Clinton Administration, would we not be seriously discussing the possibility of a Black/Latino presidential ticket? This ticket would be backed overwhelmingly by two political factions sure to take the White House, laying the groundwork for a serious Hispanic candidate for President in 8 years. Instead, Obama must play traditional politics and will likely choose a white male running mate to bring “credibility” and “experience” to this ticket.

Last year I had the distinct pleasure of working with descendents of Cesar Chavez. That union partially inspired me to discuss this difficult but real phenomenon in our country. It also reminds me of something Dr. King wrote to Cesar Chavez before his death in 1968, while Chavez was fasting in protest, which read,

"Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for
freedom, for dignity, and for humanity."

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[1] NAACP African-American Policy Opinions 2007. http://www.naacp.org/advocacy/research/reports_briefs/policy_report.pdf