Even Bigoted Hispanics Will Vote for Blacks—and 4 Other Surprises About ‘Latino America’

*Two things are surprising about this article published in the National Journal: the headline that reads “Even bigoted Hispanics will vote for blacks… ” belies a lack of awareness of their own condescending attitude; and the subheads that read ” … ripe for GOP appeals” seem to echo a prevalent GOP sentiment – Latinos are Republicans, they just don’t know it. VL

By Ron Fournier, National Journal

In April, a child born somewhere in California made Hispanics the state’s largest racial-ethnic group, replacing whites. Texas will be majority-Hispanic by 2020. In Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, and South Dakota, Hispanic populations have doubled since 2000.

“If the past is the prologue, the more than 53 million souls who make up this (mostly) new American community may well rewrite the political history of the United States,” social scientists Matt Barreto and Gary Segura write in their new book, Latino America. And yet, they say, Republican and Democratic strategies toward Hispanics are largely built on false assumptions.

Myth #1: Hispanic racism and/or antagonism toward African-Americans threatens the Democratic coalition. “Latinos are not immune to the racism that is prevalent in American society,” Segura told me via email, a follow-up to an hour-long conversation about the book. But their analysis of voting data, coupled with polling that measures racial attitudes, found two clear differentiators between whites and Hispanics.

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