english

R e s p o n s e t o S i l v i o To r r e s - S a i l l a n t

‘ TO O B L A C K TO B E L AT I N O / A : ’ B L A C K N E S S A N D B L A C K S A S F O R E I G N E R S I N L AT I N O S T U D I E S

Ta n ya K a t e r ı́ H e r n á n d e z Rutgers University School of Law, NJ

In his article ‘Inventing the Race: Latinos and the Ethnoracial

Pentagon,’ Silvio Torres-Saillant, unpacks the ‘conceptual panacea

of mestizaje’ to reveal the extent to which the pride Latino/as take

in being enlightened about race relations as a mixed people1 is

accompanied by the resilience of White supremacist ideals. Torres-

Saillant persuasively argues that many Latino Studies scholars have

thus far been content to focus on the mestizaje pride2 without

thoroughly interrogating the subtext of White supremacy. Indeed, one

area that is often overlooked in Latino Studies is the treatment of

Afro-Latino/as within the Latino/a community, and a complete

examination of Latino/a relations with Anglo-Blacks.3 Yet, if the

mestizaje race relations mindset were indeed such an enlightened

space one would expect relations with Afro-Latino/as and Anglo-

Blacks in the United States to embody the fantasy of racial democracy

so often touted in Latin American countries. (Yet even in Latin

America, the racial democracy premise is challenged as pure myth in

ways that are made particularly relevant in the few racial discrimina-

tion cases that are brought by Afro-Latino/a plaintiffs. Hernández

(2002).)

Instead, an examination of the Afro-Latino/a context reveals a

racialized treatment of Afro-Latino/a identity as foreign. (Neil

Gotanda is the scholar who has usefully articulated the ways in

which persistent perceptions of being foreign are an aspect of

the racialization process. He describes the racialization of Asian

Americans and ‘the persistence of the view that even American-born

Latino Studies 2003, 1, (152–159) �c 2003 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1476-3435/03 $25.00 www.palgrave-journals.com/lst

1 Rodrı́guez

(2000: 16) traces

the extent to

which the gener-

al cultural pride

Latinos/as have

regarding their

multiple racial

ancestries trans-

lates into some

Latinos/as adopt-

ing a mixed-race

racial identity.

She notes in

recent census tests,

more Hispanics

chose the

‘multiracial’

category (6.7%)

than did non-

Hispanics (less

than 1%), and

about one-third

of all those in

the multiracial

category were

Hispanic.).

non-Whites were somehow ‘foreign.’ ’ (Gotanda, 1995: 1188).) To be

more specific, Afro-Latino/a identity is a contested terrain in which self-

identified Afro-Latino/as are visually viewed as Anglo-Blacks and hence

not ‘authentic’ Latinos. Self-identified Afro-Latino/as are inassimilable

foreigners who challenge the notion that mestizaje has molded together a

racially unique people separate from Anglo-Whites, but more impor-

tantly separate from Anglo-Blacks. In other words, Afro-Latino/as are

often positioned as equally foreign as Anglo-Blacks to the portrait of

authentic Latino/a identity. The frequent dynamic of Afro-Latino/as being

mistaken for Anglo-Blacks in their own Latino communities is emble-

matic of the foreignness of Blackness to Latinos. (For example, Drayton

(1995: 8) describes how Afro-Cuban Pedro Velez, Jr. is often addressed in

English when shopping in Latino owned stores in Florida and then being

told when he announces his Cuban heritage ‘But you don’t look Cuban.’

Comas-Diaz (1996: 168) also notes that the internalized racism of Latino/as

causes their perception that Afro-Latino/as are foreign to Latino/a identity.)

In short, relations with Afro-Latino/as and Anglo-Blacks are neither ideal

nor free from racism. A number of examples bear out this premise.

In 1993 when Latino/a activists in Houston, Texas, mounted a

campaign to increase the representation of Latino/as in positions of

public leadership they demanded a ‘Hispanic’ person replace the

incumbent director of Casa de Amigos, a municipal health clinic which

serves a predominantly Latino/a population (Gurwitt, 1993). The target

of all the protests, the candlelit vigil in front of the clinic, and the

impassioned statements to the press, was incumbent director Eladio Reid

– a Spanish-speaking son of a Panamanian woman. Eladio’s African

ancestry eviscerated his status as Latino in a city in which Latino/as

have long struggled to distinguish themselves from a large Anglo-Black

population. Eladio was simply not Hispanic enough for those policing

the imagined borders of Latinidad in Houston.

Torres-Saillant (2002) draws out a similar racial border patrol example

on the physical US border. Ms. Goico, an INS agent and US citizen of

Dominican ancestry in JFK International Airport in New York took it

upon herself to detain and meticulously question a fellow compatriot

from the Dominican Republic whom she suspected of falsely presenting

herself as a Dominican with forged documents simply because the woman

was of African ancestry and bore a French surname (a presumed sign

of Haitian ethnicity). Thus in her role as INS agent, Ms. Goico was

simultaneously able to police the U.S. border, and police the White purity

of Dominican identity. The former enabled Goico to assert her own

Americaness and the latter enabled Goico to assert her own authenticity

as a raceless Latina, all by virtue of excluding the foreigness of Blackness

from the United States and from the Latino/a imaginary.

2 Some examples of

the mestizaje-pride

element surface in the

work of Victor Valle

and Rodolfo D.

Torres (1995) along

with the more famous

example of Anzaldúa

(1987). Anzaldúa is

so enamoured of

mestizaje as a concept

that she goes so far as

to refer favorably to

Mexican philosopher

José Vasconcelos’

(1925) antiquated

‘cosmic race’ theory

without mentioning

the strong White su-

premacist aspects of

his theory. See

Vasconcelos, 1979

(1925), 30 (articulat-

ing the benefits of the

cosmic race mixture

where ‘the lower

types of the species

will be absorbed by

the superior. In this

manner, for example,

the blacks could be

redeemed, and step

by step, by the vo-

luntary extinction,

the uglier stocks will

give way to the more

handsome.’). Anzal-

dúa’s (1987: 77) en-

dorsement charac-

terizes the cosmic

race theory as

‘[o]pposite to the

theory of the pure

Aryan, and to the

policy of racial purity

that white American

practices, his theory is

one of inclusivity.’

Despite the

fundamental racism

of Vasconcelos’ theo-

ry, Anzaldúa (1987:

80-85) goes on to

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Ta n y a K a t e r ı́ H e r n á n d e z

Even within the terrain of popular culture, Blackness is vigilantly

protected against by Latino/as. Negrón-Muntaner (2002), describes the

racially charged brouhaha that ensued when Mattel introduced its

‘Puerto Rican’ Barbie doll in 1997. While Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico

favorably received the doll, Puerto Ricans in the United States objected to

the doll’s White-like appearance as a poor representation of Puerto Rican

racial identity. Yet those who objected were very careful not to demand

that the doll be remade especially dark-skinned or curly haired. In fact,

the ‘consumers were not demanding that the doll have ‘bad’ hair, as if a

Black Puerto Rican Barbie could not be representative of all Puerto

Ricans. Ironically, a Black Puerto Rican Barbie, particularly one who

wears contemporary clothes, could not have looked much different

from Black (African American) Barbie, thus undermining the notion of

essential differences between both groups, and any modest racial capital

that light-skinned Puerto Ricans may wish to claim in the colonial

metropolisy . What US critics were after, then, was the ‘correct’ ethnic

representational formula that could prevent Puerto Ricans from being

confused with either African Americans or Anglos’ (Negrón-Muntaner,

2002: 45).

What the preceding examples and many others highlight is the manner

in which Blackness is viewed as problematic to Latino identity formation.

(For example, one Afro-Latina observes ‘On the other hand, my Latino

friends see my race as a liability. ‘You’re not black, like the African

Americans in the United States,’ one told me recently. It bothers me that

to accept me, they want to distance me from being black, which carries

negative connotations in the Americas.’ (Pryce 1999: 56).) Just as Afro-

Cuban author Evelio Grillo learned growing up in Tampa, Florida,

Afro-Latino/as are often ‘too black to be Hispanic,’ (Grillo, 2000: xiii).

In turn, the Latino/a problem with Blackness implodes the notion that

Latino/as are genetically a more racially harmonious people as a result

of their mixed-race heritage. Indeed, the Latino/a problem with Blackness

extends beyond the existence of Afro-Latino/as into relations with

Anglo-Blacks.

Current discussions about the demographic explosion of Latinos/as

and their desire to assume greater political clout has focused upon the

presumed obstructionism and discontent of Anglo-Blacks who must

‘relinquish’ their power to accommodate Latino/as.4 However, few

commentators detail the manner in which the Latino/a community’s own

racism interferes with its ability to productively build bridges with the

Anglo-Black community.5 Black–Latino/a political turf wars in Dallas,

Texas, over the selection of a school superintendent in 1997, in Miami,

Florida, over the 1996 mayoral election, and in Chicago, Illinois, over the

allocation of public housing units in 1994, have all been depicted as zero

posit that a ‘mestiza

consciousness’ breaks

down paradigms and

is thus more progres-

sive about race rela-

tions and thereby

allows mestiza (read

Chicanas) to act as a

mediator linking dif-

ferent groups of peo-

ple together. This

fascination with a

benevolent mestizaje

is also echoed by

Victor Valle and

Rodolfo D. Torres

(1995: 148-149)

when they character-

ize it as an ‘outlaw

discourse’ which is

‘radically inclusive’

and a ‘response to

Western imperialism.’

3 I use the term ‘

Anglo-Blacks’ in this

essay as a method

for distinguishing

non-Latino/a Blacks

from Afro-Latino/as.

While admittedly an

awkward term, ‘An-

glo-Blacks’ avoids the

imprecision of refer-

ring to presumed lin-

guistic differences

between the two

groups when many

Afro-Latino/as in the

United States speak

little or no Spanish.

‘Anglo-Blacks’ also

refrains from negat-

ing the influence of

the geographic space

of the Americas

on Afro-Latino/as,

that the terms

‘Black-American,’

‘Afro-American,’ and

‘African-American’

do by exclusively

latino studies - 1:1 154 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sum struggles to gain Latino/a political power by wrenching it away from

the begrudging hands of Anglo-Blacks (Kasindorf and Puente, 1999:

21A). Anglo-Blacks are portrayed as resentful power brokers who are

disinterested in forming coalitions with Latino/as. Curiously missing

from the narrative is any background information about Latino/a racial

attitudes.

For instance, while great media attention has focused on Latino/a and

Anglo-Black competition in Los Angeles, California, over such issues as

staff hiring at county hospitals, little mention is made over the fact that

for the past 10 years the Los Angeles town of Inglewood has experienced

violence each time Black History Month is celebrated (Kasindorf and

Puente, 1999: 21A). The source of the violence is the resentment of

Latino/a teens at Black culture being celebrated for an entire month. In

February 1999, the principal of Inglewood High School cancelled the

Black History Month celebration in order to avoid the violence. In the

words of a Latino student at a Chicago high school that experienced

similar dissension ‘It’s crazy. But a lot of the Hispanic kids here just don’t

want to be friends with the blacks.’ (Heard, 1992: 1C).

Yet, Latino/a disdain for Anglo-Blacks is not isolated to contemporary

Inglewood, California,6 but was also historically evident prior to the

1960’s Chicano social movement. Ian Haney Lopez describes how prior

to the Chicano movement ‘the Mexican-American generation saw

themselves as a White group. This self-conception both drew upon

and led to prejudice against African-Americans, which in turn hindered

direct relations between those two groups’ (Haney Lopez, 2001: 216).

Mexican-American leaders claimed that Mexicans were Caucasian and

thus biologically White and therefore deserving of the same social status

as Anglo-Whites.7 It was only after wide-scale police brutality and

judicial mistreatment of Mexicans in the wake of the Black Civil Rights

Movement, that a Chicano movement that stressed a non-White Chicano

identity emerged. But even the non-White identity that emerged focused

upon Chicano’s indigenous ancestry and completely submerged the

African ancestry that also exists. Indeed, the existence of self-identified

Afro-Mexicans and Afro-Latinos disrupts the ability to assume a non-

White racial identity completely separate from any association with

African ancestry.

In fact, the preference for a White racial identity continues to hold

currency with many Latino/as as illustrated by the fact that the

Association of White Hispanics was the largest petitioning group in

1994 to request a change to the 2000 census racial categories that would

add the racial classification ‘White Hispanic’ to the census form (Martin

Alcoff, 2000: 33). Similarly, Torres-Saillant’s article notes that Census

2000 demonstrated that many Latinos were hesitant to distinguish

associating ‘America’

with Anglo-Blacks.

While ‘Anglo’ is tra-

ditionally understood

as a term to designate

European-descended

Whites, it actually re-

fers to any person of

English ancestry. The

American Heritage

Dictionary of the

English Language

(Davies, 1976: 27).

Given the extensive

racial mixing that

African slaves were

subjected to upon

their coerced entry

into the English colo-

nies, it is not all far-

fetched to generalize

Anglo-Blacks as hav-

ing English ancestors

in addition to African

ancestors.

4 For example, one

legal scholar states:

‘Latinos will soon

become the largest

minority in the

United States.

African-Americans

may therefore be

about to give up

political clout to

Latinos. This pro-

spect has generated

tension between Afri-

can-Americans and

Latinos,’ (Martinez,

1998: 213). And an-

other Latino Studies

scholar states: ‘The

progressive ‘Latiniza-

tion’ of the urban

population is seen as

threatening by some

blacks in these

areas.’ (Fox, 1996:

21). What such com-

mentators fail to

To o b l a c k t o b e L a t i n o 155 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ta n y a K a t e r ı́ H e r n á n d e z

themselves racially from Whites. Perhaps the White Hispanic classifica-

tion petitioned for in 1994 was meant to emulate the ‘Yankee look’ that

Ilan Stavans refers to when he states ‘Many of us Latinos already have

a Yankee look: We either make a conscious effort to look gringo, or

we’re simply absorbed by the culture’s fashion and manners.’ (Stavans,

1995: 8). Of course, the idea that (some) Latino/as can assimilate is

a notion that conservative Anglos actively promote to discourage Latino/

a coalitions with other subordinated racial groups,8 and which Latino/a

conservatives adhere to in promoting the status of Latino/as over Anglo-

Blacks in particular.9 Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres refer to the

seduction of Whiteness as assimilation, as a ‘racial bribe’ that is

particularly salient to lighter-skinned or wealthy Latino/as who are

‘offered a chance to become white, so long as they maintain their social

distance from blackness’ (Guinier and Torres, 2002: 225). It is in this

way that mestizaje upon being transported to the United States by

Latino/as hopefully becomes a pathway to assimilation – ‘Not

coincidentally, the embracing of a mulatto aesthetics comes at a time

when the [Latino/a] elites – more American and ‘modern’ than ever –

wish to distinguish themselves from (other) Americans by establishing

that they are not racists’ (Negrón-Muntaner, 2002: 52).

What is most disturbing about this multi-layered dynamic of Latino/as

putting forth an image of enlightened racial thinking by virtue of their

racially mixed heritage while simultaneously negating the existence of

Afro-Latino/as in the pursuit of Whiteness, and the racialized elements of

their interactions with Anglo-Blacks, is the way in which the mindset

obstructs any ability to effectively work through the complexity of the

socioeconomic racial hierarchy that purposely discourages racialized

groups from attacking White supremacy as a unified force. For instance,

in the New York Times series entitled ‘How Race is Lived in America,’ the

investigation into the North Carolina pork production employment

sector revealed a rigidly planned hierarchy in job tasks assigned by race

that usually had Whites employed as supervisors over both Anglo-Blacks

and Latino/as. In turn, the racial hierarchy influenced employees’

perceptions of one another by race. Yet, rather than focusing on the

injustice of all-White management ranks, Mexican worker Mrs.

Fernandez is quoted as saying ‘Blacks don’t want work. They are lazy.’

Her husband Mr. Fernandez is later quoted as saying ‘I hate the Blacks.’

(LeDuff, 2000: A1).

Those who have done the hard work of coalition politics assert that

‘the most important lesson was that conflict between communities is

rarely, if ever, only about differences in culture or language. Not that such

differences are inconsequential. However, economics are most often at

the heart of intercommunity tension.’ (Diaz-Veizades and Taehan Chang,

simultaneously note

is the extent to which

many Latinos coa-

lesce with Anglo-

Blacks on a number

of policy issues. For

instance in studies of

mainland Puerto Ri-

can political atti-

tudes, a great deal of

commonality be-

tween Anglo-Blacks

and mainland Puerto

Ricans of all races

was documented re-

garding issues of im-

migration and

government spending

on Anglo-Black

equality (Falcon,

1995: 203). While all

Latino/as do not

share the same politi-

cal views, the Puerto

Rican example draws

out the way in which

political perspective is

not the sole explana-

tory factor in the

poor state of Anglo

Black–Latino

relations.

5 One exception is

scholar Bill Piatt, who

states ‘some Hispa-

nics, themselves

victims of discrimina-

tion, look down on

African Americans.

They may believe

they are superior

partly because the

media constantly re-

minds them that

Hispanics will soon

outnumber Blacks.’

(Piatt, 1997: 25).

6 Jorge (1979: 139)

early on noted how

Latino/as such as

latino studies - 1:1 156 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1995: M5). I do not mean to suggest that Latinos/as never form effective

coalitions with Anglo-Blacks and other racial minorities, when in fact

there have been a number of noteworthy occasions of such cooperation.10

But instead I simply wish to emphasize that the structural inequalities of

racial hierarchy that harm Latino/as and other racial minorities will never

be eviscerated so long as Latino/as and the scholars that discuss their

realities ignore the existence of racial prejudice within the community

and treat the concept of Blackness as foreign to Latino/a identity.11

A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s

Funding for this research project was provided by the Dean’s Research

Fund of Rutgers School of Law-Newark. I would like to express my

gratitude to Lisa Brown and Heather Ellis for their research assistance on

this essay.

A b o u t t h e a u t h o r

Tanya Hernandez is a Professor of Law and the Justice Frederick Hall

Scholar at Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, where she

teaches Race and the Law, Property, and Trusts & Estates. She received

her A.B. from Brown University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School.

Her scholarly interest is in the study of comparative race relations and

her work in that area has been published in the Cornell Law Review,

Yale Law & Policy Review, the U.C. Davis Law Review, and other

publications. Professor Hernandez is a Senior Editor for the Oxford

University Press Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States

(forthcoming, 2004).

R e f e r e n c e s

Anzaldúa, Gloria (1987) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute Books.

Chavez, Linda (1990) ‘Rainbow collision: relations between African Americans and Hispanic Americans’, The New Republic, November 19, p. 14.

Comas-Diaz, Lillian (1996) ‘LatiNegra: mental health issues of African Latinas’, in Maria P.P. Root (1996) editor, The Multiracial Racial Borders as New Frontier, New York: Sage Publishers, pp. 167–190.

Davies, Peter (1976) editor The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, New York: Dell Publishing.

Diaz-Veizades, Jeannette and Chang, Edward Taehan (1995) ‘Goodwill alone can’t rebuild L. A’, Los Angeles Times, May 28, p. M5.

Puerto Rican are

taught to dislike

Anglo-Blacks within

their family circles. It

is thus not surprising

when that private

dislike is transformed

into public disdain.

Indeed, when

Miami’s White Cu-

ban dominated gov-

ernment ‘snubbed’

Nelson Mandela dur-

ing his 1993 visit to

the city, Anglo-Blacks

were so insulted that

they instituted a

tourism boycott

which is estimated to

have cost Miami up

to 50 million in lost

revenue. (Rohter,

1993, section 1,

page 1)

7 Rubén Salazar, the

Los Angeles Times

journalist who most

faithfully reported the

developments of the

Chicano movement,

himself observed that

‘many [Mexican-

Americans] still cling

to the idea that Mex-

ican-Americans are

Caucasians, thus

white, thus ‘one of

the boys.’ (Salazar,

1970: 241) In addi-

tion, Salazar observed

‘that several of the

more conservative

Mexican-American

leaders strongly op-

pose any ‘mixing’ of

Mexican-American

and Negro grie-

vances.’ (Salazar,

1963: 113).

To o b l a c k t o b e L a t i n o 157 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ta n y a K a t e r ı́ H e r n á n d e z

Drayton, Michelle (1995) ‘Black Cubans, too, often stare in face of prejudice’, Tampa Tribune, November 5, p. 8.

Falcon, Angelo (1995) ‘Puerto Ricans and the politics of racial identity’, in Herbert W. Harris, Howard C. Blue and Erza E. H. Griffith (1995) editors, Racial and Ethnic Identity: Psychological Development and Creative Expression, New York: Routledge, pp. 193–207.

Fox, Geoffrey (1996) Hispanic Nation, Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group.

Gotanda, Neil (1995) ‘Other non-Whites in American legal history: a review of justice at war’, Columbia Law Review, vol. 85, pp. 1186–1192.

Grillo, Enelio (2000) Black Cuban, Black American, Houston, TX: Arte Público Press.

Guinier, Lani and Torres, Gerald (2002) The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Gurwitt, Rob (1993) ‘Collision in Brown and Black’, Congressional Quarterly DBA Governing Magazine, January.

Haney, Lopez Ian (2001) ‘Protest, repression, and race: legal violence and the Chicano Movement’, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, vol. 150: pp. 205–244.

Heard, Jacquelyn (1992) ‘Racial strife runs deep at high school: Black and Hispanic staff students clash at Farragut’, Chicago Tribune, November 17, p. 1C.

Hernández, Tanya Katerı́ (2002) ‘The multiracial matrix: the role of race ideology in the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, a United States – Latin America comparison’, Cornell Law Review, Vol. 87: pp. 1093–1176.

Jorge, Angela (1979) ‘The Black Puerto Rican woman in contemporary American society’, in E. Acosta-Belén (1979) editor, The Puerto Rican Woman, New York: Praeger Publishers, pp. 134–141.

Kasindorf, Martin and Puente, Maria (1999) ‘Hispanics and Blacks find their futures entangled’, USA Today, September 10, p. 21A.

LeDuff, Charlie (2000) ‘At a slaughterhouse, some things never die: who kills, who cuts, who bosses can depend on race’, New York Times, June 16, p. A1.

Leo, John (1997) ‘A dubious ‘‘diversity’’ report’, US News & World Report, June 23, p. 15.

Martin, Alcoff Linde (2000) ‘Is Latina/o identity a racial identity’, in J.J.E. Gracia and P. De Greiff (2000) editors, Hispanics/Latinos in the United States: Ethnicity, race and rights, New York: Routledge, pp. 23–44.

Martinez, George (1998) ‘African-Americans, Latinos, and the construction of race: towards and epistemic coalition’, Chicano-Latino Law Review, vol. 19: pp. 213–222.

Negron-Muntaner, Frances (2002) ‘Barbie’s Hair: Selling Out Puerto Rican Identity in the Global Market’, in Michelle Habell-Pallan and Mary Romero (2002) editors, Latino/a Popular Culture, New York: NYU Press, pp. 38–60.

Piatt, Bill (1997) Black and Brown in America: The Case for Cooperation, New York: New York University Press.

Pryce, Delina D (1999) ‘Black Latina’ Hispanic Magazine, March, vol. 56.

Rodrı́guez, C.E. (2000) Changing Race: Latinos the Census and the History of Ethnicity in the United States, New York: New York University Press.

Rodrı́guez, Victor M. (1999) ‘Boricuas, African Americans, and Chicanos in the ‘‘Far West’’: notes on the Puerto Rican pro-indepedence movement in California,

8 For example,

conservative com-

mentator Leo (1997:

15) states that Hispa-

nics are like ‘earlier

white ethnic groups’

in their ability to

blend into the general

population and there-

fore are not predis-

posed to aligning

themselves with

Anglo-Blacks.

9 A prime example is

Linda Chavez with

her portrayal of His-

panics as being ‘more

like other immigrant

group, which have

assimilated into the

American economic

and political system

within a few genera-

tions, than they are

like blacks.’ (Chavez,

1990: 14).

10 Some notable in-

stances of Latino/a

inter-racial coalition

formation are: the

successful 1983 Chi-

cago election cam-

paign of Harold

Washington for

mayor; the Los

Angeles bus riders’

strike (Guinier and

Torres, 2002:

232–241); the crea-

tion of the Figueroa

Corridor Coalition

for Economic Justice

in Los Angeles; joint

projects of Puerto

Rican community

groups in the Bay

Area of San Francisco

and Oakland with the

Black Panther Party

and other Black

latino studies - 1:1 158 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1960s–1980’s, in Rodolfo D. Torres and George Katsiaficas (1999) editors, Latino Social Movements, New York: Routledge, pp. 79–109.

Rohter, Larry (1993) ‘As Hispanic presence grows, so does black anger’, New York Times, June 20, section 1, p. 1.

Salazar, Rubén (1995a) (1970) ‘Chicanos would find identity before coalition with blacks’, in Mario T. Garcı́a (1970) editor, Border Correspondent: Selected Writings, 1955–1970, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 239–241.

Salazar, Rubén (1995b) (1963) ‘Negro drive worries Mexican-Americans’, in M.T. Garcia (1963) editor, Border Correspondent: Selected Writings, 1955–1970, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 113–114.

Stavans, Ilan (1995) The Hispanic Condition: Reflections on Culture and Identity in America, New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Torres-Saillant, Silvio (2002) ‘Problematic paradigms: racial diversity and corporate identity in the Latino community’, in M.M. Suarez-Orozoco and M. M. Paez (2002) editors, Latinos: Remaking America, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 435–455.

Valle, Victor and Torres, Rodolfo D. (1995) ‘The idea of mestizaje and the ‘‘race’’ problematic: racialized media discourse in a post-fordist landscape’, in Antonia Darder (1995) editor, Culture and Difference: Critical Perspectives on the Bicultural Experience in the United States, Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey Pub, pp. 139–150.

Vasconcelos, José (1979) (1925) The Cosmic Race/La Raza Cósmica, New York: Pace Books.

Latino Studies (2003) 1, 152–159. doi:10.1057/palgrave.lst.8600011

organizations

(Rodrı́guez, 1999:

82); the Young Lords

alliance with the

Black Panthers and

the formation of the

Rainbow Coalition

(Fox, 1996: 127–134).

11 ‘By offering this

option of whiteness

over time to selected

nonblack nonwhites,

the racial binary of

black and white is

preserved and race in

the United States is

made more manage-

able for those seeking

to hold onto zero sum

power.’ (Guinier and

Torres, 2002: 227).

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