← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Bardamu
Thread ID: 18854 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2005-06-27
2005-06-27 01:26 | User Profile
[url]http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~24781~2938678,00.html[/url]
Black-Latino divide
Pretending it's not real won't solve L.A.'s racial issue
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Guest columnist
The issue is painful and explosive, and city and county officials tap dance around it for fear that they'll offend blacks and Latinos or that they'll stir up racial antagonisms. But Los Angeles' black and Latino clash is real and deep-seated, and it goes way beyond the recent spike in hate crimes at L.A. schools. So far, L.A.'s politicians have taken the cowardly way out and buried the simmering conflict under sociologists' jargon. They toss out terms like "ethnic tensions," "L.A.'s population growing pains" and "changing urban dynamics" to mask the conflict. They kid themselves that by staging feel-good, media-hyped "days of dialogue" with handpicked academics and community leaders, they'll get to the bottom of the conflict.
This politically correct, fantasy-land approach to L.A.'s black and Latino divide virtually ensures that the profound problems that underlie the clash will remain just as deep -- and just as misunderstood. But, then, that's not new. Politicians have long papered over black-Latino racial conflict by putting on the happy image of everyone marching shoulder to shoulder to do battle against the twin afflictions of racial discrimination and poverty.
That's no longer possible.
The big surge in Latino numbers in Los Angeles and nationally has radically changed the political power equation. Latinos have now replaced blacks as the dominant minority in America. Latino activists and political leaders have had to make a hard decision: Do they discard old multiracial coalitions with blacks -- and instead rely on their growing numbers and political clout to win elections? Or do they reach out to blacks and opt for power-sharing?
Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa has opted for the multiracial approach. During his campaign, he tried mightily to convince black voters that his election would not diminish their dwindling political power in the city and that they would have a place in his administration.
The strategy paid off, in part. Villaraigosa got the endorsement of the city's top black politicians and community leaders, and he markedly bumped up the black votes he received from the number he got during his 2001 mayoral race. But Mayor James Hahn still held a slight overall edge among black voters. Blacks clung tightly to Hahn mostly from fear, even paranoia, that a Latino mayor -- and an escalating number of Latino voters in the city -- would spell doom for them at City Hall.
That will happen anyway. South Los Angeles is no longer predominantly black. It is predominantly Latino. In future years, Latinos will grab one, possibly two, and maybe even all three of the L.A. City Council seats currently held by blacks. That almost certainly will spark even fiercer political and racial turf warfare. Blacks will lose that battle, and their political power in the city will dwindle down to a fizzle.
But politics and school troubles, worrisome as they are, are not the biggest flash point of conflict between blacks and Latinos. Jobs and immigration are, and L.A.'s elected officials are loath to talk about either for fear they'll be called racially divisive.
The irony is it took a stray, impolitic remark by Mexican President Vicente Fox back in May to ram the issue back on the racial table. Fox meant no harm with his quip that blacks won't work certain jobs. He was trying to make the point that congressional immigration reforms are bad for Mexicans and Americans. That's a disputable point, but it brought instant howls of protest from Jesse Jackson and other black leaders.
Though Fox slightly backed away from his quip, what he said needed to be said. Still, its implication was wrong. The black unemployment rate is double that of whites and higher than that of Latinos in L.A. County. Among young black males, unemployment has reached near Great Depression levels in the city and the county. Jobs, or rather the scarcity of them, are a major crisis for blacks. Blacks have been bumped from lower-end jobs in the service and retail industries in L.A. County.
Young blacks, especially students, might well take these jobs if they were offered them, but many employers flatly refuse to hire them, instead hiring illegal immigrants. Employers rationalize their discrimination with the claim that young blacks are lazy or more crime-prone, and illegal immigrants are more diligent and industrious.
This pricks a sore racial nerve among blacks, and rightly so. High joblessness exacerbates the crime and drug crisis in South L.A., and it fuels school violence. It further marginalizes the black poor and young.
Many blacks unabashedly blame their jobless plight on illegal immigration. This is not totally fair. The lack of job skills, training and education programs -- and the high incarceration rate of black males -- all help to render them virtually unemployable. Yet, it's still true that immigration has displaced blacks from unskilled and low-skilled jobs, and that's just enough truth to fuel passions and anger.
That anger seeped through in a recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California. It found that blacks, far more than whites, regard illegal immigrants as a big drain on public services and a liability to the local economy. The perception -- no matter how baseless -- that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from blacks will continue to inflame resentment.
Villaraigosa has obliquely acknowledged that job competition is a critical problem. He has pledged that his administration will do everything it can to increase job opportunities. However, he has not said what, if anything, he would do to dent South L.A.'s shamefully high black unemployment problem.
The solution to racial conflict in L.A.'s schools and on the streets includes many components: diversity in City Hall; mandatory cultural-sensitivity programs for teachers, students and parents; school safe zones; tougher school discipline; a crash program in job and skills training for young blacks; a full attack on job discrimination; tighter immigration controls; and swift punishment of police misconduct.
What city or county official will boldly commit to that?
This August marks the 40th anniversary of the devastating 1965 Watts riot. It sent the terrifying signal to America and the world that racial violence can tear the heart out of a nation and a city. L.A. politicians and community leaders say that type of violence can't happen again. They say they've learned the lesson of the past. But one of the lessons they haven't learned is that failure to tackle the root causes of racial conflict is a prescription for disaster.
2005-06-27 02:01 | User Profile
[QUOTE]The solution to racial conflict in L.A.'s schools and on the streets includes many components: diversity in City Hall; mandatory cultural-sensitivity programs for teachers, students and parents; school safe zones; tougher school discipline; a crash program in job and skills training for young blacks; a full attack on job discrimination; tighter immigration controls; and swift punishment of police misconduct. [/QUOTE]
Sounds like the same old liberal approach which results in a continuing progression towards third worldism. There have been escalating violence in a nearby town also as Latrinos from Equador have conflicts with Latrinos from Mexico, and of course the housing project Negroes can't help but get in on the shootings and other violent crime.
I just saw a Cops TV show in which undercover police drive a tractor trailor into a housing project area and pretend it has engine trouble. Within seconds various Negroes are trying to break into the trailor and steal the goods. When they get caught the adult females watching actually laugh at the Negro youths being arrested, but in some cases said that the Negro being arrested was a relative as if that meant the cops got the wrong guy. I guess the point being is that there are breeding grounds for occupants of America who will always be a danger and a problem. The breeding grounds must be removed.
2005-06-27 02:08 | User Profile
The solution to racial conflict in L.A.'s schools and on the streets includes many components: diversity in City Hall; mandatory cultural-sensitivity programs for teachers, students and parents; school safe zones; tougher school discipline; a crash program in job and skills training for young blacks; a full attack on job discrimination; tighter immigration controls; and swift punishment of police misconduct.
Talk about the same old song and dance. As if blacks don't already have enough "crash programs in jobs and skills training". It's amazing they can even write this crap with a straight face. Maybe they don't. And what is this about "cultural sensitivity programs for teachers"? Are we in the old USSR or what? The racial problems in the ghetto are the fault of the prejudice of teachers? Where's the puke-smilie when you need him?
2005-06-27 03:05 | User Profile
There were no cultural-sensitivity programs in the USSR, amigo :cool:
If all this riff-raff can't function as a first-world society, no amount of social engineering will ever change that.
The USSR was about functioning humans being abruptly locked into a loser economical system and still being able to launch first human into space, the West now is about (gradual) imposing human scum onto working economial system. The result will be failure as well.
2005-06-27 03:20 | User Profile
[QUOTE=madrussian]There were no cultural-sensitivity programs in the USSR, amigo :cool:
[/QUOTE]
Not even at Patrice Lumumba University?
2005-06-27 03:41 | User Profile
Of course not.
2005-07-01 04:03 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Chiaro Scuro]it's merely a question of two disenfranchised groups competing for what little political power is made available to them. A proper course of action would be for the city's blacks, latinos, and poor whites to unite.[/QUOTE]
That's all but impossible, due to mankind's deeply tribal nature.
This is the point where liberals always go wrong. They refuse to accept the fact that human beings are naturally "racist" and fashion their policies instead around the insane notion that people of different races can be made to live and work together in peace through proper indoctrination.
It won't work. Never has, never will.
We need to accept reality on reality's terms and admit to our innermost selves that "racism" is natural, healthy and good.
2005-07-01 04:05 | User Profile
"it's merely a question of two disenfranchised groups competing for what little political power is made available to them. A proper course of action would be for the city's blacks, latinos, and poor whites to unite."
A better alternative is for blacks, whites, and latinos to separate and form their own nations, and you can go with the communists in whatever hellhole that nation is.
2005-07-01 04:10 | User Profile
We can start by banning you again. :smoke:
2005-07-01 04:39 | User Profile
If you guys were to think instead of talking you would know that AZTLAN is here to stay, tell me, for every Latino who is born here how many blacks or whites are born?
And you have more and more Latnos coming in every day and like a plague they will cover the US of A, who to blame? ask your government.
Before we see an open warfare between whites and Latinos we will see one between Latinos and blacks.
2005-07-01 04:47 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ponce]If you guys were to think instead of talking you would know that AZTLAN is here to stay, tell me, for every Latino who is born here how many blacks or whites are born?
And you have more and more Latnos coming in every day and like a plague they will cover the US of A, who to blame? ask your government.
Before we see an open warfare between whites and Latinos we will see one between Latinos and blacks.[/QUOTE] I don't know the blacks still think they are the "minority" in charge and the Latino's are too lazy to do anything but steal and have more babies.
2005-07-01 09:50 | User Profile
[QUOTE]
The solution to racial conflict in L.A.'s schools and on the streets includes many components: diversity in City Hall; mandatory cultural-sensitivity programs for teachers, students and parents; school safe zones; tougher school discipline; a crash program in job and skills training for young blacks; a full attack on job discrimination; tighter immigration controls; and swift punishment of police misconduct.
[/QUOTE]Most of these solutions are completely retarded. "cultural sensitivity" programs. Yeah, lets attempt to force the blacks and the mexicans to get along, now that will, and has, worked wonders.:rolleyes: And swift punishment of police misconduct. What on earth does that have to do with these racial tensions? They are getting so desperate to enforce "multiculturalism", they are coming up with "solutions" to problems that always have and always will exist, that even the stupidest person should be able to see makes no sense, whatsoever.