BEYOND RACE: THE CLINTON – OBAMA, BLACK AND HISPANIC SPLIT
By Gigi

This is a battle royal; fierce fighting over African-American and the Hispanic vote has turned out to be the biggest surprise of the 2008 Democratic race. But here’s the kicker: Blacks are gravitating to Sen. Barack Obama and Hispanics to Sen. Hillary Clinton. I don’t know about y’all, but I wasn’t surprised. Not in the least. The same thing occurred over 12 years ago when Rudolph Guiliani, who is White received most of the Hispanic vote in New York over David Dinkins for Mayor, who is Black… The tension between Hispanics and Blacks has many sources: like the immigration issue.

Growing anger over the way Hispanic immigration is changing the Black neighborhoods has prompted many Blacks to re-think the notion of a “rainbow coalition”.

Surveys show that many Hispanics mistrust Blacks and see themselves as more White than like Blacks. And Blacks feel that the only time Hispanics see themselves as minorities, is when they’re being persecuted by White law enforcement and look towards an “Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson” to fight their battles for them. But when everything is okay in their community, they hate us again and think that they’re better than Blacks.

Hispanics have been riding the coattails of Blacks due to Affirmative Action for decades, a movement that was started by Blacks. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that Blacks and poor immigrants could become political allies. Later on, Rev. Jesse Jackson heralded the arrival of the mighty “rainbow coalition” of Blacks and immigrants and touted such liberal policies as amnesty for illegals; which soften anti-immigration attitudes in the African-American community. But since immigration re-ignited as a national issue in 2006, Black anger has clearly grown. Blacks—that is American Blacks, not newly arrived Africans or Blacks from other countries benefiting from my transatlantic slave ancestors, and are in favor of cutting immigration levels.

Behind the anger is the rapid change that Hispanic immigration is working on longtime black locales. Places like South Los Angeles have transformed almost overnight into majority Latino communities, what with all the sneaking across the borders that’s been going on. Hispanic population has exploded…the majority of which are Mexicans and Ecuadorians. The Latino in-pouring has intensified the feeling among Blacks that they’re losing economic ground to Hispanic immigrants, especially in LA. You would be hard-pressed to find a Black face on a construction site or in a fast-food restaurant.

The Latino influx into formerly Black-majority urban neighborhoods has sparked deadlier kinds of conflict. While most violent crime in these areas is still Black on Black or Latino on Latino, inter-ethnic violence is mounting. In LA, Blacks were the victims of most of the racially motivated attacks in 2006 by Hispanics. Black anger is also rising because they realize that many Latinos hold intensely negative, and in fact racists stereotypes about them. Latinos don’t think that Blacks are hard working or cannot be trusted. Perhaps someone should school them on Slavery in this damn country, and how my ancestors built this country for FREE!!!! Latino political gains are coming at the expense of Blacks. Hillary Clinton knows this, which is why she’s courting for their votes in heavily populated Latino states...and she’s getting them.

The Republicans with positions on immigration that would resonate in the Black community haven’t tried to take advantage of black anger on immigration…they’re missing an opportunity. American Blacks and non-American Blacks did not participate in the Latino marches and protests in favor of amnesty last spring. I know I didn’t!! I couldn’t even cross the street, because there was so many of them. I was hoping for Immigration to back up 50 or 60 large vans to pile in all the illegals demanding things from us Americans. Because I feel, if they didn’t like our policies and you’re illegal in this country, then they should return to their own countries.

Many of the Hispanic women have as many babies as they can to be American born in order to remain here. And many get on the public welfare rolls the minute they hit our shores, because they’re largely un-educated and un-skilled. And if our political leaders felt threatened enough, they could actively pursue tougher immigration policies. STAY TUNED……..