>being that latinos are allegedly going >to be the largest "minority" >group in the u.s. in >(pick a year here), i'm >curious: do blacks and latinos >get along in your area?
um. there's not really a big cohesiveness that i see.
>let me explain where i'm coming >from. i grew up on >long island, and where i >lived there weren't a whole >lot of latinos. in the >schools that i attended, people >of color were definitely a >"minority". i always felt that >my black peers were friendlier >towards me than my white >peers (because "we're all minorities"). >i even seriously considered going >to howard, although eventually finances >kept me in new york. > > >in college, it wasn't unusual to >see latinos in black fraternities/sororities, >and vice versa. i was >in a latino activist organization, >and whenever we had events >at least 40-50% of the >people in attendance were black >non-latinos. black-latino friendships and relationships >were commonplace. however, i was >surprised to learn from friends >who weren't from new york >that the harmonious relations between >blacks and latinos was strictly >"a new york thing". evidently, >in other areas of the >country, both groups see each >other as a threat.
well, you've got to consider that opressed groups fight for the power that non oppressed groups give them. and there's conflict between them. So you can see how there would be conflict among the two largest ethnic minority groups. and also, there are different ethnic groups under the umbrella latino..and different groups may be treated differently.
>is this true where you live? >if latinos and blacks don't >get along where you live, >what would be the best >way to remedy that? perhaps >this may sound hopelessly naive, >but i think that we >really need each other.
yeah. i'm in my pessimist mode right now, but I think you're right. We could use each other.
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