Comments on: Blacks and Latinos

By: a517dogg

a517dogg — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Given the opposition of a lot of black ministers to contraception, their strategy seems to be to increase the number of black voters as well. Same for evangelicals.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

a517dogg,

Thanks for the comment!

While most groups, except for white liberals (Episcopalians [1], etc.) are generally in favor of reproductive success, the latinos uniquely focused on adding through immigration. This offloads the whole problem of actually raising children, as you generally get people of working age fully formed.

Black identity politicians could have dome something similar, advocating increased immigration from the West Indies or Africa instead of focusing on American ills. But they chose a shorter-term strategy instead, and now we are entering the long-term.

I commented on your blog [2,3]

[1] http://catholicgauze.blogspot.com/2006/12/episcopal-church-begins-to-split.html
[2] http://a517dogg.blogspot.com/2007/01/failure-of-all-volunteer-military.html
[3] http://a517dogg.blogspot.com/2007/01/liberals-and-conservatives-think.html

By: a517dogg

a517dogg — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the comment; I replied to [2].

An interesting long-term political strategy would be to influence Mexican/other Latino politics to change the views of the immigrants before American Latinos can work them into a political machine. i.e., try to affect your political party's brand overseas.

By: Catholicgauze

Catholicgauze — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That may be black ministers' strategy but the truth is blacks have a disproportionately higher rate of abortion than other groups and especially Hispanics.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Catholicgauze,

That population can support a higher abortion rate because of a higher live birth rate. Demographically, you can replace an infanticide with just one more insemination.

a517dogg,

"An interesting long-term political strategy would be to influence Mexican/other Latino politics to change the views of the immigrants before American Latinos can work them into a political machine. i.e., try to affect your political party's brand overseas.

Could you give an example of that strategy?

By: a517dogg

a517dogg — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Can't think of anything, just hypothetical.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Could you rephrase, then? I don't quite understand your meaning.

By: a517dogg

a517dogg — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You said Latinos work on getting more Latino voters. The way I understand how immigrants get involved in the American political process is that it starts through personal contacts in the immigrant community. Therefore a political party or activist organization could work on recruiting immigrants before they reach American shores by appealing to a layer of political identity other than that of "immigrant" - for instance, "pro-choice" or "stay the course". Maybe political parties could do this by working on their branding.

Just an idea, probably would be too difficult to put into practice.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think that's a clever idea, a517d0gg. It would be long-term party building, but it would be intersting for the Republican or Democratic parties to spend money on winning Mexican hearts & minds, on the idea that will change the party dynamics in the states.

It would be interesting if something simliar to this exsted in Puerto Rico and, if not, why not.

By: sonofsamphm1c

sonofsamphm1c — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

"...but efforts by latinos to enlarge their voting black have been tireless ..."

I guess once you've enlarged your voting black you never go back.

Just in my experience, so far Mexican Americans do not turn out in the same percentages as blacks, and a small, albeit fair, percentage often tend to try their best to vote white, so they have blocks of both the invisible and the divisible.