Prometheus 6

Yesterday I got email from a couple of folks that suggested I should say something about Obama and Black folks vs other minorities. Seems someone wrote something about a Black/brown divide and such.

I spent a bit of time thinking about what to write and you know what? I got nothing.

Really. I thought about my own neighborhood, my own experiences. We have a large Mexican contingent here. I suppose it's possible I'm atypical but I'm really not seeing stress on a personal level. There used to be some competition on an economic level but that's not so much because Mexicans took "our" jobs (Black folks generlly lack the sense of entitlement that makes it possible to claim a job you weren't actually hired to do) but because Black folks barely get hired in New York City...a problem that predates their arrival.

Besides, media discussions tend to collapse all the different Spanish speaking folks into a kind of ethnic fruit punch where the different flavors that form this taste that can be found nowhere in nature, and the component tastes can no longer be distinguished.

"What does an orange taste like?" "Try this fruit punch."

"What does an pineapple taste like?" "Try this fruit punch."

"What does an grape taste like?" "Try this fruit punch."

And yeah, you can always find someone that doesn't like whoever you want to discuss. Someone will validate whatever statement you want to make. This looks like a "tell both sides" error, which produces error by giving the lunatic fringe equal weight with normal folks.

There's considerable social distance between Mexicans and Black folks that I attribute to the language difference. But don't get it twisted...that will change as they inevitably assimilate. Nor is that a sign of how the various other Latino communities relate to Black folks. I'd have to write up something about Dominicans and Puerto Ricans and Colombians etc. as well as Mexicans to address all that.