Julianne Malveaux’s Commentary

 

           

WHAT RACE?

BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX

 

            Data from the 2000 Census is being released this month, but if you read headlines about population data, you’d have thought you were reading about a horse race.  “Census Figures Show Hispanics Pulling Even with Blacks,” said the New York Times.  “Latinos May Exceed Blacks in the U.S.” wrote the LA Times.  The Washington Post said Hispanics had “drawn even” with Blacks, and the Philadelphia Enquirer described the two groups as in a “virtual tie” for the dubious distinction of being the nation’s largest minority group.  Other words have been used to describe the relative size of the African American and Latino populations.  African Americans have been, it is said, “outpaced”, “overtaken” and “surpassed”. 

 

            Are African Americans and Hispanics in competition?  For what?   What does the fact that one group is larger than the other signify from a policy perspective?  Both groups experience higher unemployment rates, lower incomes, and more poverty than whites do.  Both groups are underrepresented in the nation’s corridors of power, from the seats of the United States Senate, to corporate board participation, to enrollment in our nation’s elite law, business and medical schools.  Neither group has its fair share of representation.  Will the victor in the horserace be awarded the prize of fair treatment?  I think not.

 

            It is in the interest of many “color blind” white Americans to set African Americans and Latinos at each other’s throats.  The columnist George Will virtually salivated with glee on one of the Sunday morning chat shows, when he said the growing Latino population might put an end to the “racial spoils” system   He went on to say that the number of Hispanics and Asians, combined, “far outnumber African Americans”.  Should outnumbering African Americans become a goal of other populations of color, and if so why? 

 

            If, despite growing populations of color, white folks insist on holding onto their slice of the pie, then African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Native American people will squabble over “racial spoils”.  But if the allocation system is fair and reasonable, as minority population rises, so will their share of the pie.  That means less for whites.  Thus the conversation about racial competition.

 

            Issues of African American entitlement won’t go away, regardless of the growing Hispanic population.  Those who feel that African Americans are entitled to reparations for slavery won’t change their mind because the Hispanic population is growing.  Those who say African Americans need to be better represented in our nation’s schools and corporations won’t change their position because of the increased size of the Hispanic population.  African Americans and Hispanics may choose to be complementary, not competitive, around issues of affirmative action and fair representation.  But whether they coalesce or compete, each group has reasonable claims against a nation that, despite increasing diversity, retains remnants of racism.

 

            Each population experiences racism differently, but relative size has little to do with the extent of the injury any group can claim.  Less than one percent of our nation’s population is Native American, primarily because our country wiped out much of that population in a genocidal, territory-grabbing set of wars.  If the Hispanic population were five times the size of the African American population, that would not minimize the barbarity of slavery and the inequality of its aftermath, nor would it change the appropriate remedy for that wrong.

 

            Eventually, the size of the Hispanic population may mean that African American issues may garner diminished attention, but only if people have such limited attention spans that they can’t contemplate diversity.   Similarly, some in advertising have suggested that target market dollars once allocated to African Americans will now be shifted to Hispanics.  In the shortest run, those with even shorter sight will possibly decide that they want to be responsive to Hispanics at the expense of African Americans.  Smart advertisers will be responsive to both populations.  They certainly can’t afford to write off the more than twelve percent of the population that is African American, or the nearly 13 percent that is Latino without ignoring dollars that may make the difference between profits and losses.

 

            Some people’s arithmetic will add Hispanics with Asians and use that combined population to dwarf African American population.  Another formula, though, will combine people of color and note the obvious – as the white population drops, some whites are interesting in holding onto the past by whatever means necessary.  For some, sowing conflict between the nation’s largest racial/ethnic groups is easier than grappling with our nation’s evolving multicultural reality.

 

            Don’t get me wrong.  There have been, and perhaps always will be, tensions between racial/ethnic groups in this country.  But African Americans have more in common than in contrast, especially around a set of economic issues.  Both groups will be losers if they let the arithmetic of white supremacy successfully divide and conquer them.

 

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