A Latino, is characterized as a person of Latin American origin or descent, especially a man or boy.
Latinas, of course, is the female version of Latino.
Hispanic refers to persons, cultures, or countries related to the Spanish language, Spanish culture, Spanish people, or Spain in general.
I am not trying to teach a class on Latin or Hispanic culture, Lord knows I am woefully inadequate to that task.
I am merely trying to understand myself, the nuances of the different people who fall under those umbrellas, mainly because they are pretty decided about how they are addressed.
I thought it important to understand some of these nuances as I try to write this blog. I wanted a little bit of clarity about the cultural differences of the people in order not to offend.
Every race in the United States is quick to get on the defensive when questions are asked about their practices and habits, especially when it comes to voting habits.
The first thing that comes up is, ‘we are not a monolith”, and correctly so, each and every individual is entirely different than the other, much less a whole race of people.
But I wanted to understand why Spanish speaking Americans would vote for the Republican party at all, given that the party is inherently hostile to immigrants, and even worse has become a white supremacist party.
Worse yet, I wanted to understand why after Donald Trump came down the escalator in his gaudy Manhattan tower, and declared that Mexicans are rapists, murderers, etc, any person of Hispanic, or Latino ancestry would vote for him?
In 2016 even after he had insulted Mexicans, Donald Trump was still able to get 28% of the Hispanic vote, even though Hillary Clinton won 66% of that demographic’s vote, she fell below President Barack Obama who garnered 71% to be re-elected in 2012.
Donald Trump was able to do better than Mitt Romney did, despite the insults, demagoguery, and xenophobia he started and maintained during his 2016 campaign. And so I wanted to take a look at what moves people to walk into a voting booth and cast a vote for a person who would wholesale disparage an entire people with a broad brush?
I have thought about this dynamic quite a bit, and truthfully, I have sometimes succumbed to intellectual indolence with the assumptions I make about this group, which previously puts me in the same category as Donald Trump’s broad-brush strategy. For that, I apologize.
Some experts argue that Hispanics and Latinos are highly religious people who lean Republican in part because that party talks a good game about God, and country.
I understand how that could be the case, but before we get to the living in America thing, and be able to practice their religion, there is the little issue of their immigration status.
The Republican party would gladly throw ever Hispanic immigrant out of the country if they could. They have gone as far as to deport Hispanic American citizens, in their haste to get them out of the country.
Why is that you ask?
Hispanics now make up 16.7% of the population, roughly about 52 million people. They are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country.
That is cause for alarm for Republicans, and frankly, for white people in general, which is basically what the Republican party is today, a Lilly white party of right-wingers.
In his 2006 book, Mexico recapturing U.S. lands? unrepentant right-wing bigot, Patrick Buchanan wrote; Will the American Southwest become a giant Kosovo, a part of the nation separated from the rest by language, ethnicity, history, and culture, to be reabsorbed in all but name by Mexico from whom we took these lands in the time of Jackson and Polk? Chicano chauvinists and Mexican agents have made clear their intent to take back through demography and culture what their ancestors lost through war. High among the [costs of immigration] is the appearance among us of diseases that never before afflicted us and the sudden reappearance of contagious diseases that researchers and doctors had eradicated long ago. Malaria, polio, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and such rarities of the Third World as dengue fever, Chagas’ Disease, and leprosy are surfacing here… Bedbugs have invaded the United States for the first time in 50 years, with 28 states reporting recent infestations.
You simply cannot make these things up. Before there was Donald Trump there was Patrick Buchanan. I guess there are no diseases in America, or worse, smallpox and other diseases that Europeans brought to America, not to mention the mindless violence which took countless lives and in some cases decimated entire native tribes, do not count to these bigots but we move on.
So, if we look at the whole notion of these people’s fidelity to religion, I contend we have a better understanding of why they ignore real-life slights and abuses to still side with their abusers.
It follows the same pattern of some blacks who still support the Republican Party along religious lines, even though the party could not be any more hostile to Blacks than they are today.
In fact, white evangelicals too, suffer through poverty and want, while supporting a Republican party that gives tax breaks to the rich, while ignoring their plight.
In Florida, Cuban-Americans are forever spooked by their experiences with communism, even those who are second and third-generation Americans, still cling to the Republican party because that Party is louder with its hatred for Communism and Socialism.
The Republican party has been masters of demagoguery, while the Democrats are concerned with simply doing the right thing. People believe the lies unfortunately, those beliefs have devastating consequences for everyone else.
Hispanics are certainly not natural allies of African-Americans. Having suffered through slavery Jim Crow and the continued institutionalized racism in America, Blacks are wary of a Republican party that continues to demonstrate animus toward them.
Even though the Democratic party is far from perfect, Black Americans are aligned to the Democratic party in large part because of Republican animus. This is so even though there are parts of the Democratic platform that does not line up with Black interest.
Conscientious Black voters cannot in good conscience support the Republican party, which is now a white supremacist party. Black voters are also not a monolith, younger Black voters are more open to Homosexual rights, Transgender rights, older Religious Blacks are more conservative on those issues.
As the Hispanic population continues to grow in leap and bounds, and as many Hispanic voters throw their support behind the Republican Party, the interest of Black voters is caught in the crosshairs.
Black voters now form the most reliable support base of the Democratic party. It is from the solid 80+ percentile of support that the Democratic party enjoys that it can build out a winning strategy nationwide.
Joe Biden’s dead and buried Presidential campaign was exhumed in South Carolina, put in the recovery room, and given a second life. That was largely African-Americans,(more so women) turning out to give life to Joe Biden.
A burgeoning Hispanic population that sees itself as a kind of swing demographic, is inherently antithetical to African-American interest.
In States like Florida and California for example, Latin communities do not see themselves as a part of the struggles that Blacks face.
In some cases, they even step out in support of the police, against the interest of aggrieved Black citizens. I have reluctantly concluded on previous occasions, that Hispanics do see themselves as a kind of (whites-in waiting). With Blacks at the bottom of the ladder, Hispanic tend to not want to tie their fortunes to African-Americans, despite their largely black skin, they appear to be following the lead of the Irish and Italians who were discriminated against when they first arrived, but who eventually were assimilated into the American construct of whiteness.
Mike Beckles is a former police Detective corporal, businessman, freelance writer, he is a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s also a contributor to several websites.
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