The Chronicle of Anthony K. Valley

RE: Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math

David L. Evans, my cousin in whom I am well pleased, responds to the New York Times article, Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math

In his email, David prefaced the letter as such:

Descriptive political terms like African-American, black, Hispanic, Latino, white, women, etc., have never been monolithic. There was always overlap and subdivision—even in the one-drop-of-black-blood era. It is, therefore, too simple to say that “Hispanics outnumber blacks…,” when overlapping membership runs into the millions. Moreover, white citizens who were born in South Africa are technically “African-Americans” and blond, blue-eyed Americans whose ancestors came from Spain are technically “Hispanics.” With this in mind I wrote the following letter that appeared in Saturday’s New York Times. — David L. Evans

First a snippet from the New York Times article under scrutiny, Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math :

The Web site for Black Entertainment Television put the question bluntly: “Does it bother you that Hispanics now outnumber African-Americans in the U.S.?”

The response has been torrential. One visitor to the site wrote, “Blacks are beginning to experience another wave of racial bias and favoritism not in our favor.” The writer complained that employers now have a preference for bilingual applicants, and bemoaned “attempts to replace our threatening stance against discrimination with a Hispanic vote.”

But another cautioned: “Sounds like the same old trick to me. `Divide and conquer.’ Are we really going to let some numbers dictate how we treat one another?”

The BET.com message board is only one forum, but it has evoked some of the emotions, worries, hopes and even awkwardness that have been felt nationwide over a singular moment in American demographics. Last summer, the Census Bureau announced that Latinos 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.

Finally, David’s response, posted in the New York Times on Saturday, January 24th.

To the Editor:

Re: “Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math” (front page, Jan. 17):

The numbers don’t permit an exact comparison, but the political relationships of blacks to Latinos and blacks to women is somewhat analogous. The groups are not mutually exclusive, and the millions of black women members have dual identifications imposed on them.

The common experience of widespread discrimination, however, doesn’t guarantee a seamless coalition between either of these overlapping demographic couples. Their histories are different and their political issues are not always the same. Occasional conflict is inevitable.

As an African-American, I suggest that liberal blacks and Latinos do what conservative women and Hispanics have done: recognize that mutual political interests sometimes require selective interaction inside and outside their political groups.

DAVID L. EVANS
Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 17, 2004

David, thank you for sharing.

Posted by akvalley at January 26, 2004 12:43 AM | TrackBack