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Tanya Hernandez’s article for the LA Times about growing tensions between the city’s Latino and black community has been posted on several websites this past week. Using two recent incidences in LA as a backdrop: the Chino Prison riot between Latino and black inmates and the murder of Cheryl Green, a 14 year-old teenager who was gunned down by two Latino youth, Hernandez argues that it is not economic disparity – a common belief among many when talking about the social discord between the two communities – but racial prejudices against blacks:
At first blush, it may be mystifying why such animosity exists between two ethnic groups that share so many of the same socioeconomic deprivations. Over the years, the hostility has been explained as a natural reaction to competition for blue-collar jobs in a tight labor market, or as the result of turf battles and cultural disputes in changing neighborhoods. Others have suggested that perhaps Latinos have simply been adept at learning the U.S. lesson of anti-black racism, or that perhaps black Americans are resentful at having the benefits of the civil rights movement extended to Latinos.
While her assertion about “Latino ethnic cleaning†of blacks from multiethnic neighborhoods was questioned by some as ‘sensationalistic’ (and it has worked, as Neo-Nazi websites have gleefully reported on the issue), her use of statistics is somewhat confusing. Latina Lista writes that when looking at the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics, whites are more likely to commit hate crimes (Cheryl Green’s murder is considered by many as a hate crime). But are Latinos considered white in regards to the gathering of statistical information? There is no category within the report. Therefore, she argues, there is no concrete evidence that there is a rise in violence against blacks towards Latinos.
Oliver Wang from Poplicks wonders why no empirical evidence was used in the article:
What's curious here is that throughout the rest of the article, Hernandez relies on research data to support her argument yet here - with the most explosive argument of all - there is strangely no attempt to cite empirical sources even though such data exists. I cannot, of course, presume why this omission exists but I can say that if you look at the existing data, it complicates any easy depiction of racial violence as one-sided (let alone on the level of "ethnic cleansing").
Since this article was originally published, there have been a number of neighborhood rallies to denounce Green’s murder and to try and mend the relations between the communities in Los Angeles. According to the LA Times, a ‘truce’ in the turf wars has been offered by a Latino gang that has promised to ‘open up’ their neighborhoods to African- American families – as long as they are given access to predominately African-American neighborhoods. NOTE: Hernandez’s article does not differentiate between the various cultures that constitute the Latino community. She does, however provide an analysis about the root causes of racism that lies within the Latino community based on skin hue.
