RSSWhy won’t Hispanics vote for Obama? Racism or cultural baggage?
Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | February 26, 2008
On one of the morning shows, a commentator said that Hillary Clinton pollsters tell her that Hispanics prefer to vote for white candidates than black candidates. Let’s look at the facts:
In Nevada, Clinton won whites, 52 percent to Obama’s 34 percent. Obama won nearly 80% of the black vote. Despite being endorsed by a heavily Latino service union, Clinton received 66% of the Hispanic vote, besting Obama by 38 points (here, here, and here)
Therefore:
1. Hispanics prefer white candidates over black ones more than whites prefer whites over blacks.
3. Since Hillary and Obama have similar positions on immigration and, err, everything else, one may conclude that either Hispanics have more sympathy towards white women than black men- 38 points more- or that Hispanics have more antipathy towards blacks than whites- even more than whites have against blacks.
Is it fair to conclude that Hispanics are more racist against blacks than whites are against blacks?
If you’d have asked me before the Nevada race, I’d have predicted similar white and Hispanic voting patterns because although racism exists in Hispanic countries, Hispanics become less racist after arriving in the United States and absorbing the United States’ more merit-driven values. That the children of Hispanic immigrants, whom I teach, being exposed longer, are much less racist. Since I was wrong, I’ll offer this analysis and hope for the above at a later time (I’ll deal with it more in-depth later):
In the racial hierarchy of Latin America, being white is considered the best of all possible things, indigenous (Indian or Native American) coming in a distant second and black rounding out third place. One can see this dynamic at play when watching Spanish-language television (El Alma no Tiene Color is a soap opera about a child ostracized for being part black- in 1997!) and, frankly, every other way you want. It’s also important to note that most Latinos are of mixed heritage.
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