I keep hearing the same message over and over in the mainstream media: Latinos are on the verge of overtaking African Americans to become the largest minority group in America.

According to the 2000 census, "Hispanics or Latinos" now number 35.3 million, and "blacks or African Americans" number 36.4 million. (The federal government does not consider Hispanics a race, and in the last census 710,000 Latinos--2 percent of the community--identified themselves as "black or African American.") The Hispanic community grew by almost 60 percent over the last decade, and now accounts for 12.5 percent of the U.S. population. According to some estimates, Latinos will become the largest minority group by 2010.

Latinos herald the news of their fast-growing numbers and they should. Their leaders have been trying to get the point across for far too long that they are a huge, growing minority group that deserves more recognition. They now have the opportunity to say to America: You will stop ignoring us. You will pay attention.

Like blacks, they suffer from discrimination--racial profiling or bias attacks. They suffer from high rates of poverty and high dropout rates. Despite the problems, Latino concerns have received scant attention in the media.

Although I am African American, I embrace Latino efforts for better recognition and equality. I hope Latinos can use the news of their substantial numbers to plead their case. But I'm concerned that blacks and Latinos may be pitted against each other as the number of Latinos continues to grow. In fact, some columnists and news analysts wrongly present a black versus Latino paradigm as if that makes perfect sense. They suggest that blacks and Latinos will engage in a power struggle as Hispanics overtake blacks to become America's largest minority group.

Those who present this view fail to understand two things. First, racial oppression has never been about a numbers game. It occurs when one group uses its power to dominate another. Apartheid South Africa was proof of that. For hundreds of years South African whites--a small segment of the population--dominated the black majority through the control of the police and military.

Next, the struggle for power and access that African Americans and Latinos are currently engaged in is with a white-dominated power structure. So it makes sense that blacks and Latinos should work together to change the domination, as many do already, toward the goal of equality for all. That conflict should unite people of color.

The real question is this: How is white America going to respond to the demands of a growing Hispanic population?

The census numbers show that Hispanics are no longer limited to their traditional entry points--Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and the state of Texas. They have moved in large numbers to cities and towns throughout the Sunbelt and Midwest: North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Nevada, and Iowa have all seen huge Latino growth over the last decade. So how is America going to handle the changing faces, the fresh groups of students entering predominantly whites schools, the different cultures and new leaders with new demands?

That challenge won't be limited to white Americans. African Americans and Latinos must make sure they don't buy into the mainstream media's flawed analysis and compete needlessly.

I grew up in a city that is an excellent example of the way African Americans and Latinos can get along. Blacks and Latinos made it possible to elect New York City's first African American mayor, Democrat David Dinkins, in 1989, even when the majority of whites voted for the Republican candidate, Rudolph Giuliani. Both groups have worked together in the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, and Hispanic Legislative Caucus.

But even before the black-Latino coalition became political, African Americans and Puerto Ricans had established close ties in New York's neighborhoods.

The bonding was natural because we had so much in common. Our two communities began migrating to New York in large numbers during the first half of the twentieth century--African Americans came up from the South while Puerto Ricans emigrated from the Caribbean. We both had known racial oppression and slavery, and were excluded from white society. We both were God-fearing people with large extended families, largely poor and working class, many of us poorly educated. Our styles of music and dance were different, but they all had African roots.

In New York, we lived in the same tenement buildings, in the same housing projects, and on the same black-topped streets. We went to the same public schools, married one another, and shared family ties. We dined in one another's homes, learned each other's dances, and together shaped hip hop and other urban art forms.

Blacks and Puerto Ricans in New York realized that there were advantages in getting along, and we built powerful alliances supporting our common interests. I hope, as America's population grows even more diverse, that other Latino communities and other people of color will be able to forge similar kinds of bonds. I hope we can prove that these pundits had it wrong--that we can turn to each other to fight racial oppression without turning against one another.

React >
Ready to enter the fray? Step into the Forum, or write a Letter to the Editor.
Like what you just read? Give Inthefray.com a buck.

Also Inthefray >
'If you're Hispanic, be Hispanic'
I n t h e f r a y . c o m
INSIDE > Snowing on the parade
written by Kelly Yamanouchi | Identify | June 11, 2001

The power of black and brown

Story Index