Re: Latino Immigrants With Negative

["Naomi Katz" <N_Katz@msn.com>]

Very enlightening observations and comments by Pete.  The study mentioned a finding that Latinos who had a sense of "linked fate" with other Latinos tended to be less stereotyping of Blacks and I was trying to hypothesize why this may be BASED ON THEIR FINDINGS.   However, Pete's extensive experience points in a different direction and this may well be because (assuming their data are correct) you are both looking at different sets of assumptions.  While the study focused on stereotypes around personal traits (are these people easy to get along with?  are they trustworthy?  hardworking?) Pete's observations have more to do with political consciousness, activeness and savvy.  Perhaps this is the reason for the different conclusions.  Whatever the case, I have hopes, as Pete expressed, that the divide can be crossed by common needs to organize.  I've also seen hopeful signs of this in my east Oakland school community, where parents, struggling to understand each other's language, nevertheless persisted in fighting together for a better education for all their kids (ie. against a charter).
--Naomi
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Peter Farruggio<mailto:pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu> 
  To: ca-resisters@interversity.org<mailto:ca-resisters@interversity.org> 
  Cc: five-point-plan@egroups.com<mailto:five-point-plan@egroups.com> 
  Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 1:43 PM
  Subject: Re: [ca-resisters] Latino Immigrants With Negative


  I think Naomi's on the right track; but that it's a bit more complicated.  Migration research in the past 10 years has found a phenomenon called "segmented assimilation" among various non-white immigrant groups in the US and Western Europe.  In brief, they find that the immigrant youth, the "1.5 generation," tends to adapt to the social values of the local neighborhood in which their families have settled, regardless of their own race/ethnicity.  For example, it was found that Haitian immigrant youth  whose families arrived in the Liberty City area of Miami, an African American neighborhood plagued by chronic unemployment, substance abuse, crime, lousy schools, etc, tended to acquire dysfunctional lifestyles much more so than similar Haitian immigrant youth in other areas.  The classic example of "successful" adaptation to life in the US is the Cuban immigrant communities across South Florida, where strong social networks with political and economic connections to the US mainstream have offered support to successive waves of new Cuban immigrants (like jobs, business loans, housing, etc)  The point is that what we see in our local community influences our understanding of what we can do with our own lives.  And I think this applies to adults as well as to young people.

  In many years of organizing, first in the labor movement, then in school/community struggles, I've seen the low opinion of African Americans held by many Latino immigrants (Mexican and Central American).  And I disagree with Naomi that this is confined to or more common among those people who have a "me first" individualist ethos.  In fact, I've seen it mostly among people who have a strong collectivist consciousness, the folks who are most amenable to fighting together to join unions or engage in social struggle.  Witness the recent million-plus turnout at immigrants' rights marches across the country, despite the threats of reprisals against the undocumented, to see a display of such collectivist consciousness and sense of solidarity.  Then, why the low opinion of African Americans among such class conscious people?  I think it's because they haven't seen their African American neighbors engaged in any kind of collective struggle.  East Oakland is a good example.  Not much organizing or social struggle has happened in the past 20 years.  People are pretty beaten down, and all they get from their "leaders" (Democratic Party hacks and church pastors) is election time promises, influence peddling and general hustling.  Numerous class conscious immigrants, ready and willing to fight the system, have expressed to me opinions that boil down to an estimation that most US Blacks are politically passive, personally corrupt, and easily subject to manipulation by hustling nationalist politicians.  In other words, "we need to draw together to fight for a better life, and these people are incapable of joining us, they're hopeless."

  Now for the good news.  This nut is easily cracked by engaging in struggle and creating overtures across racial lines based on class solidarity.  Witness the interracial organizing among high school students by groups like Youth Together, which started up in East Oakland. Witness the multiracial participation in the massive Chicago immigrant rights march this year.  Also, in more than 20 years of organizing in the workplace, I've seen negative racial attitudes frequently overcome by the need to fight together against the common enemy, the boss.  So, to best deal with this stereotyping, we need to follow Joe Hill's dying words:  "Don't mourn, organize!"

  Pete Farruggio





  At 11:45 AM 7/21/2006, you wrote:

    This is interesting...  As one who works with Latino and Black populations together I can see that this syndrome does seem to exist in East Oakland, where Latinos feel a certain superiority to Blacks.  On the other hand, the backlash is also well in place and not just among the local neighborhood population.  There is definitely resentment on many levels by Blacks towards Latinos, that gets expressed often through anti-bilingual education type comments and sentiments.  Its definitely a pecking order issue, which they of course do not address here, where society continues to pit one group against the other for supposedly scarce resources...  It stands to reason, as born out in the study, that those (Latinos in this case) who have some sort of class or group consciousness do not have as much of a negative stereotype image of Blacks.  Conversely it makes sense that those with delusions of "getting ahead" attempt to distance themselves all the more from their struggling neighbors as well as their own brothers - fellow Latinos.
    --Naomi

      ----- Original Message ----- 

      From: Peter Farruggio<mailto:pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu> 

      To: 2language@yahoogroups.com<mailto:2language@yahoogroups.com> 

      Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 4:35 AM

      Subject: [ca-resisters] Latino Immigrants With Negative Stereotypes of Black Americans



      This area of research can have important implications for those of us 

      who organize Latino immigrants to fight for better schools in low 

      income neighborhoods.

      Question: What role does US media and popular culture play in 

      propagating negative stereotypes throughout Latin America?


      Mon Jul 10 07:20:32 2006 Pacific Time

             Latino Immigrants Come to U.S. With Negative Stereotypes of 

      Black Americans, Study Shows

      http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20060710.055316&time=07%2020%20PDT&year=2006&public=1<http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20060710.055316&time=07%2020%20PDT&year=2006&public=1> 

              DURHAM, N.C., July 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- Latinos bring 

      negative stereotypes about black Americans to the U.S. when they 

      immigrate and identify more with whites than blacks, according to a 

      study of the changing political dynamics in the South.


              The research also found that living in the same neighborhoods 

      with black Americans seems to reinforce, rather than reduce, the 

      negative stereotypes Latino immigrants have of blacks, said Paula D. 

      McClain, a Duke University political science professor who is the 

      study's lead author.


              McClain said the findings are significant because the South 

      has the largest population of blacks in the U.S. and has been defined 

      more than other regions along a black-white divide. How Latino 

      immigrants relate to blacks and whites -- and how those groups relate 

      to Latinos -- has implications for the social and political dynamic 

      of the region, she said.


              "Given the increasing number of Latino immigrants in the 

      South and the possibility that over time their numbers might rival or 

      even surpass black Americans in the region, if large portions of 

      Latino immigrants maintain negative attitudes of black Americans, 

      where will this leave blacks?" the researchers wrote. "Will blacks 

      find that they must not only make demands on whites for continued 

      progress, but also mount a fight on another front against Latinos?"


              In an interview, McClain added: "We're actually pretty 

      depressed about a lot of our findings."


              The findings will be published in the August issue of the 

      Journal of Politics, which is already available online 

      ( http://journalofpolitics.org/art68_3.html#a7<http://journalofpolitics.org/art68_3.html#a7>). The study was funded 

      by the Ford Foundation.


              The study's co-authors are Niambi M. Carter, Victoria M. 

      DeFrancesco Soto and Monique L. Lyle of Duke; Jeffrey D. Grynaviski 

      of the University of Chicago; Shayla C. Nunnally of the University of 

      Connecticut; Thomas J. Scotto of West Virginia University; J. Alan 

      Kendrick of St. Augustine's College; and Gerald F. Lackey and Kendra 

      Davenport Cotton of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


              The findings are based on a 2003 survey, conducted in English 

      and Spanish, of 500 Durham, N.C., residents, including 160 whites, 

      151 blacks and 167 Latinos. Durham was chosen for the pilot study 

      because North Carolina has the fastest-growing Latino population in 

      the country, and because Durham's black population includes residents 

      at all socioeconomic levels.


              The goal was to understand how Latino immigration -- a 

      population largely new to the South in the past decade -- affects 

      group dynamics in the South, which has historically been defined by 

      the relationship between blacks and whites. The survey focused on a 

      range of social and political activities and attitudes, including 

      stereotypes each group holds about the other two.


              Researchers found that 58.9 percent of Latino immigrants -- 

      most Latinos in Durham are from Mexico -- feel that few or almost no 

      blacks are hard-working. About one-third, or 32.5 percent, of Latino 

      immigrants reported they feel few or almost no blacks are easy to get 

      along with. More than half of the Latino immigrants, or 56.9 percent, 

      feel that few or almost no blacks could be trusted.


              Within the Latino immigrant population, researchers found, 

      more-educated Latinos have significantly fewer negative stereotypes, 

      and men have significantly more negative stereotypes.


              "One might think that the cause of the Latinos' negative 

      opinions about blacks is the transmission of prejudice from Southern 

      whites, but our data do not support this notion," the researchers wrote.


              White residents in Durham actually have a more positive view 

      of blacks, leading researchers to conclude that Latinos' negative 

      views were not adopted from whites. In the survey, only 9.3 percent 

      of whites surveyed indicate that few blacks are hard-working; only 

      8.4 percent believe few or almost no blacks are easy to get along 

      with; and only 9.6 percent feel that few or almost no blacks can be trusted.


              The researchers also noted that if whites were the primary 

      influence on Latinos' stereotypes, Latinos would become more 

      prejudiced the longer they are in the U.S.; the findings do not 

      support that notion. The researchers also investigated whether 

      Latinos might be reciprocating the prejudice they sense from blacks; 

      again, the survey did not support this theory.


              The survey showed that blacks view Latinos much more 

      favorably than Latinos view blacks. About 72 percent of blacks feel 

      most or almost all Latinos are hard-working, and 42.8 percent say 

      most or almost all Latinos are easy to get along with. About 

      one-third, or 32.6 percent, of blacks feel few or no Latinos could be trusted.


              WHAT CAUSES THE LATINOS' STEREOTYPES?


              The researchers concluded that Latino immigrants may bring 

      their feelings about the racial hierarchies in their own countries 

      with them to the U.S. The researchers noted that previous studies on 

      race and Latin America, especially Mexico, identify blacks as 

      "representing the bottom rungs of society."


              The study also looked at the racial group with whom Latino 

      immigrants most identify. More than 78 percent feel they have the 

      most in common with whites, and 52.8 percent said they have the least 

      in common with blacks.


              Whites do not feel the same connection to Latino immigrants. 

      Nearly half of whites -- 47.5 percent -- reported they have the least 

      in common with Latinos. Just 22.2 percent of whites see themselves as 

      having the most in common with Latinos, while 45.9 percent say they 

      have the most in common with blacks.


              Among blacks, respondents are split -- 49.6 percent say 

      blacks have the most in common with Latinos, while 45.5 percent say 

      they have the most in common with whites.


              The study did find that several factors do reduce 

      stereotypes. For instance, when Latinos have a sense of "linked fate" 

      with other Latinos -- or the sense that what happens to other Latinos 

      affects them -- they tend to have fewer stereotypes against blacks.


              "The finding that these negative attitudes are modulated by a 

      sense of linked fate suggests possibilities for the formation of 

      connections to black Americans in the absence of the presence of an 

      extant American Latino community," the researchers wrote.


              The researchers also noted that education and some types of 

      social interaction with blacks can reduce negative stereotypes among 

      Latinos. However, one type of social interaction -- living in the 

      same neighborhood -- "pushes them farther away from blacks and closer 

      to whites," the study said.


              "These new Latino immigrants may behave in ways similar to 

      the Chinese in Mississippi in the mid-19th century, and the Cubans in 

      Miami in the mid-20th century -- identification with whites, 

      distancing themselves from blacks, and feeling no responsibility to 

      rectify the continuing inequalities of black Americans," the 

      researchers wrote.


              EXPANDING THE STUDY


              McClain noted that more research needs to be done to fully 

      understand these findings. Her research team plans to expand the 

      study to determine whether the Durham findings mirror Latino-black 

      relations in other Southern cities. In addition to re-surveying 

      Durham residents, her group plans to study Memphis, Tenn.; 

      Greensboro, N.C.; Greenville, S.C.; and Dalton, Ga. She recently 

      received a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to survey three of 

      the cities and will seek funding from other sources to fund the 

      remaining two cities.


              While the topic requires additional research, McClain said 

      the initial findings indicate that community leaders in cities with 

      burgeoning Latino immigrant populations must begin thinking through 

      how the different groups get along.


              "Black and Latino leaders need to recognize that there is a 

      tremendous potential for conflict and that Latino immigrant attitudes 

      toward black Americans may be a part of that," she said. "There is 

      also a potential for a backlash against Latino immigrants from black 

      Americans."


              - - - -


              CONTACTS: Paula McClain can be reached for comment at 

      919-660-4303 or pmcclain@duke.edu<mailto:pmcclain@duke.edu>. For media assistance, contact 

      Kelly Gilmer, Duke University Office of News & Communications, 

      919-681-8065, kelly.gilmer@duke.edu<mailto:kelly.gilmer@duke.edu>.


              NOTE TO EDITORS: A copy of the study is available in the 

      August issue of the Journal of Politics at 

      http://journalofpolitics.org/art68_3.html#a7<http://journalofpolitics.org/art68_3.html#a7>.