According to some of this silly coverage one would think Latinos and black people are like oil and water or lions and polar bears.

Obviously there are problems across all groups with racism and stereotyping but it's nowhere near as monolithic as Bendixen wants to make it.

I'll predict there will be growing Latino support for Obama for the simple reason that he now has momentum behind him.

or for the simple reason that we don't like being told who to hate. or because he is taking certain stances that do appeal to some Latinos. as you say, there is no type that can contain all of us, and we all have our reasons. but i'm guessing that no latino likes being told, and especially by whites, who we are incapable of supporting! as i wrote, its a gross, gross wedge that some are trying to push with all their might.

Even the whiff of a division will be exploited by aristocratic whites. They've been doing it literally for centuries. From there perspective, every difference between two groups of people that does not include themselves is a basis for division. They're so good at fighting the class struggle they've created a meme which forbids you from mentioning the class struggle. This shit here is old hat.

Latinos and blacks voted overwhelmingly against Bush recently, where whites found themselves confused by the "uniter." And blacks and latinos vote overwhelmingly Democratic, traditionally. Sounds like points of common perspective to me. And blacks have voted overwhelmingly against right-wing black candidates in the past. So the only way the division narrative can even make sense -- not prove its point, not support its point, but register as a coherent thought expressed in english -- is if you ignore everything you know about ethnicity and voting patterns in the U.S.

We conclude the assertion is fucking bullshit, Q.E.D.

What?! I always thought "the preeminent expert in Hispanic public opinion research in the United States and Latin America" was YOU, Nez! This Bendixon dude is a poseur.

I found this post on huffingtonpost.com from Earl Ofari Hutchinson

""The 'Nevada Phenomenon' instead is the mix of wariness, fear, indifference and even hostility of the majority of Latino voters toward a black candidate.""

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/nevada-phenomenon-bigge_b_83553.html

I was shocked that someone could generalize all Latino voters in that way..

I don't see it as necessarily incongruous. It is entirely possible that Latino immigrants bring with them the same prejudices they grew up with on their countries of origin. However, the subsequent generations of Latinos born or raised in the U.S. have a completely different experience during their formative years that may make them more likely to look past race and ethnicity.

Politics is one ugly game.

Thanks for calling Sergio on his, with good arguments and evidence.

UM-I've been reading your blog for a while and really enjoy it.

On this whole "latino/black hatefest" thing the MSM loves so much, it's just another tool of the powers that be to keep us all fighting amongst one another as no one of consequence pointed out.

The f---- up s---- is that people who look like "us" (who ever us is and that includes white people who are getting screwed by white privilege and are in denial) throw their own in the trick bag on the regular.

Don't let'em put you in the trick bag-including Sergio who is clearly bought and paid for.

Bill has told Hillary she must triangulate to win. She has unfortunately drank the Kool-Aid. The youth have been underestimated, and this may be the undoing of the triangulation theory. Awesome blog.

Just to say what no one remembered to mention here: in my little town the majority of the population is Latino Negro {Black Latin}. So what does that mean in terms of voting?
And as for Nez's post, the idea is that the US will be a completely different place sociologically in 25 years due to demographics and the attitudes of all younger citizens. I hope they make a better world for themselves than the one they are getting handed now.
Perhaps if Bendixen polled attitudes over the entire voting spectrum in a Latin country {say Puerto Rico} he might very well find serious and blatant racism is alive and well. I would bet on that, I see it everywhere in the society.
So, if Bendixen is used to polling in all of the Americas he has long ago noticed that Black candidates have a very tough time in politics in Latin America.
Puerto Rico has a large Black population yet very few Afroboriquas are governing.
I'm going to stop now, because the place I usually go next is to start quoting the comments I hear every day about race and they are NOT pretty.
I don't find any fault with what Bendixen has to say in terms of reality and how it applies to where I live. In terms of the US, I am not there and don't know what is going on. As to Bendixen and the spin he gives the polls he says he takes, well, that's politics.

Many latinos in South America are "white" in their countries; latinos cover a lot of ethnicities. Race in the U.S. is more pathetically linked to melanin content than in other countries due to a couple of historical quirks I won't go into. Upshot: latinos discriminating against blacks elsewhere are often "white" where they are and would be shocked to find out they're not white once they get here. The rules of other countries do not apply to the U.S.

Having lived in Miami I'm familiar with some really ugly racial dynamics. Sometimes when I lived there I felt like everyone hated everyone else. African-Americans versus Caribbean Blacks versus Cuban-American Almost-whites versus Mexican-American/Central-American in an uneasy, informal caste system...
But I think there are also limits to how much people can fear or hate each other before they start realizing they actually have a lot of common interests. So I'm only half-cynical.

I don't think racism(s) coming out of Latin America is better or worse than racism coming out of Anglo America. They're different but definitely interrelated.

I met a black Mexican once (from Veracruz). He told me the worst racism he faced was from Mexicans who'd picked up anti-black attitudes from living in California. That to me is really depressing... how the worst parts of racial stereotypes can also get exported from Anglo to Latin America, and then maybe back again. The other side of the coin (flipping from cynical to idealistic) is that as more people cross borders there's a chance to import and export better ways of getting along and respecting each other.

Nez, thank you for the follow up on this. It really sickens me how white elites are attempting to create a wedge between black and latino voters. That article you linked was a great read and it debunked many of those myths that Clinton surrogates pushed into the media. Some pundits who repeat such nonsense seem to forget that back in October Hillary Clinton was leading in the polls among black voters. It wasn't until Obama's win in Iowa where the polls made a big shift. Back in October was when we heard that other media-created meme thrown around: "is Barack Obama black enough?" Now since it's been proven he can win a huge amount of black votes, the new story is that Latinos won't vote for him because of racism.

I'm not a fan of Obama's platform or policies, but damn, can a brother get a break or what? I'll probably vote for him despite the fact he's too accomdating to corporate interests, but I'm getting tired of the fake controversies that talking heads such as Tucker Carlson, Pat Buchanan, Chris Matthews, etc., continue to create.

Right on!
You also may want to check out this article by Gregory Rodriguez at the LA Times "Clinton's Latino spin"
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rodriguez28jan28,0,1688217.column where he makes some very good points and exposes the Sergio Bendixen lie, excuse me 'spin'. (And the difference is?)
"The Clinton campaign's assertion that Latinos historically haven't voted for black candidates is divisive -- and false." January 28, 2008

If a Hillary Clinton campaign official told a reporter that white voters never support black candidates, would the media have swallowed the message whole? What if a campaign pollster began whispering that Jews don't have an "affinity" for African American politicians? Would the pundits have accepted the premise unquestioningly?

University of Washington political scientist Matt Barreto has compiled a list of black big-city mayors who have received broad Latino support over the last several decades. In 1983, Harold Washington pulled 80% of the Latino vote in Chicago. David Dinkins won 73% in New York in 1989. And Denver's Wellington Webb garnered more than 70% in 1991, as did Ron Kirk in Dallas in 1995 and then again in 1997 and 1999.

He could have also added that longtime Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley won a healthy chunk of the Latino vote in 1973 and then the clear majority in his mayoral reelection campaigns of 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1989.

Here in L.A., all three black members of Congress represent heavily Latino districts and ultimately couldn't survive without significant Latino support. Five other black House members represent districts that are more than 25% Latino -- including New York's Charles Rangel and Texan Al Green -- and are also heavily dependent on Latino voters.

So, given all this evidence, why did this notion get repeated so nonchalantly? For one, despite the focus on demographic changes in America, journalists' ignorance of the aspirations of Latino America is pretty remarkable. They just don't know much about the biggest minority in the nation. And two, no Latino organizations function in the way that, say, the Anti-Defamation League does for Jewish Americans. In other words, you can pretty much say whatever you want about Latinos without suffering any political repercussions.

I am not Hispanic, but black. My quest today has been to unravel the tension there exists between our two ethnicities. I came across this impressive blog, and I think the healing can begin. Why is anyone still trying to divide us? I had no qualms with Hispanics or Latinos until the past two years. As the Hispanic population in Decatur, AL (hicktown, of all places! why there? I did not even want to live there), I noticed that I was receiving some hostility from 3/4 of the Hispanics I ran across in public. I could not understand it. Just 7 years prior, Magaly had been one of my 3 best friends. Her mother spoke no English, but fed me and showed me she loved me through any language barrier. I could not get past it. I was not brought up to hate anyone. As I try to find out why this sentiment exists, I become more confused. Honestly, I know every man holds his prejudices (be they race-related or not); but this division needs to stop. Seriously. By reading this blog, it seems that we are on our way to eliminating this.

well, you are welcome here, amigo.

i think it can cut both ways. and all over. mexicans catch hell from all other latinos pretty much, there is rivalry all over, and it has been visited upon the Brown™ by years and years of white supremacy and slavery and conquest and imperialism and now so many want to be "white" or want to hate on other members of The Brown™ so they can model the same shapes of conquest and racism and supremacy. we do it within our own minds to our selves and to others who suffer it as well.

what can we do but try to break that behavior in our own lives. all of us, all colors. especially those who benefit most from perpetuating it.

'm sorry you've met hostility. i thank you for writing here honestly from your own life experience.