A Politician Walks Into King Taco … A Look At The Political Term ‘Hispandering’

*Loved this piece because it asks an important question. Why isn’t pandering to Blacks, or women, or other groups called-out and given a name? I think the answer is in the idea itself.  Part of the solution to make it stop is to point it out, for the mainstream to see what we see. But at some point talking to Latinos about issues that are important to us has to be seen as legitimate politics (how’s that for a snarky oxymoron?). VL

By Shereen Marisol Meraji, Code Switch

Hilary Clinton got side-eyed after blasting Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud” at a campaign stop in San Antonio where she called herself “La Hillary” and “Tu Hillary.” Jeb Bush earned eye rolls after debuting a Spanish-language ad celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

Both were accused of “Hispandering”: a mashup of “Hispanic” and “pandering” that means faking interest in Hispanic issues and culture for self-serving reasons.

So, what counts as Hispandering, and what doesn’t? Who decides? Since Latinos are the largest minority group in the U.S., and, as you may have heard, Hispanic voters have the numbers to move the needle in next year’s election, we’re digging into the history and evolution of a term we’ll probably be hearing again.

It goes back to at least 2002, when pioneering political blogger Mickey Kaus, writing at his Slate blog Kausfiles, noted a “recent Hispandering proposal” from then-House Democratic Minority Leader Dick Gephardt to legalize some immigrants who are in the U.S. without documents. That’s the first searchable online reference to the term Hispandering, according to Nexus.

Click HERE to read the full story.