I did not like the article because it lumps all caucasions as racists and privileged. This is not true. When people say the word priviledge they are really talking about equality or lack thereof. When they put White, Black or Asian, Native American in front of it, it is racist. Many whites do not feel privileged and privilege can cut many ways. In spite of our problems, we are ALL priviledge to live in the US and we need to work on equality and inclusion.
15
I am an immigrant from India; as brown as they come. However, I don't feel America is a racist country or whites have treated me or other Indians I know badly. Yes, once in a while you sense that an individual white may have treated you differently because of the race, but more often I have faced bad treatment by people of many races and ethnicity for variety of reasons. It's hard to place myself in the mindset of blacks or Latinos yet as a rational person I don't see whites, in general, any more racist or provincial than people of other groups.
16
I glad you've realized and embraced a newfound commonality.
Now, all of you- get out there and vote.
3
Please note that Brownhas many shades - some quite light, such as most Indian Americans who have come here legally, have done well and live in white neuighborhoods. I am one of them. But I am not white. And that probably applies to Chinese, Vietmamese, Thai, Phillipino, ad even middle easterners. Please consider them as "non-hispanic" browns. They are doing quite well.
9
It is now fashionable in academic circles to conflate all marginalized people into one single aggrieved group that feels threatened by white people. So, for example, an upper-middle-class African-American physician has more in common with an illegal Mexican immigrant in a detention center than his white engineer spouse. I realize it is preposterous, but there you have it!
It is about different classes, not different races.
17
It's repulsive and unacceptable that Black and Brown people suffer the slings and arrows from a Trump MAGA culture that overtly endorses racism.
I don't have a clue how to get White people to wake up to the fact that we're all human beings who deserve respect, but eliminating ignorance would be a good start. The fact that Trump's MAGA supporters are the least educated Americans isn't hard to believe.
I wonder if White MAGA racism is as simple to explain as ignorant White people feeling the need to be better than someone and Black and Brown people are useful in that light.
2
This was a pretty good article, but I wish you would’ve used the term “Latinx” as opposed to “Latino”.
3
I would LIKE to
" collapse black and brown into an ethnic monolith ".
T'would be a powerful political bloc~!
Oh, please. There is plenty of inter-ethnic rivalry, prejudice and occasionally hate to go around.
Even in usually tolerant New York, an African-American man I knew was beaten into a coma because his South American girlfriend's brothers didn't like her dating a "black" guy. In L.A. Latino gangs have firebombed black areas. Fortunately, this level of hate and criminality are rarities. But these things do happen.
Dividing the country simplistically into white oppressors and their united-in-oppression POC victims is nothing but media meme.
18
And what about Black immigrants from the Caribbean whose ancestors were slaves
2
Hispanics and Latinos are not racial groups. They can be of any race or combination of races, but most Latino Americans and most Hispanic Americans are white. According to the Census Bureau, 53 percent of Hispanic Americans are white.
The term “Latino” is not interchangeable with “Hispanic.” The word “Latino” is short for the Spanish word “latinoamericano,” which means Latin American. All residents of Latin America are Latinos, but not all Latinos are Hispanic. For example, the residents of Haiti and Brazil are Latinos but not Hispanics because they Haiti was a French colony and Brazil was a Portuguese colonies. They were not Spanish colonies.
Patriot quarterback Tom Brady wife Gisele Bündchen is Latino but not Hispanic. Actress Cameron Diaz is both Latina and Hispanic. Millions of Latinos who emigrated from Caribbean counties are Latinos and African Americans.
Most Latino Americans and Hispanic Americans oppose illegal immigration.
Source: The Hispanic Population: 2010, U.S. Census Bureau, page 15.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/TX,US/PST045218
11
It must be galling for many of the descendants of African slaves to witness the obscene spectacle of unauthorized foreign nationals comparing their vexation to the centuries of brutal oppression that blacks had to endure.
13
Many US immigrants hail from lands where a fashionable ideology slaughtered their neighbours and vast wars produced monuments in the towns with the names of all their sons inscribed. They came to the US to escape this absolute barbarity and hell on earth. In comparison, sadly, your tale of oppression reads like a child’s bedtime story. Banging this dead drum falls on deaf ears. It isn’t Trump and his ilk. It’s your fault for expecting anything more from those with an even more damaging experience in their blood.
7
This may be true among those on the left, but for the 30% of Latinos who support the Republican party, and the 10% of African-Americans (this number is rising, by the way), there is much more in common with white conservatives than with those ostensibly of the same race. It is the same reason that the 30% of Jewish people who are conservative have more in common with Christian conservatives than with social justice Jewish leftists. Ideology trumps skin color, always, as it should.
6
People seem to be more comfortable when external appearances match.
My parents came from different countries and cultures but because they both looked white, nobody would have known about all their differences. Same with me and my spouse. And yet when new neighbors moved in on our block — a mixed-race couple who grew up in the same area, worked in the same field, went to the same church, etc. — they were assumed to be 'different'. It's weird.
26
The broad narrative that Ms. Kaplan writes about may apply to America as a whole, but it seems oddly blinkered when describing Southern California, a multicultural region with complicated racial and ethnic dynamics.
There is an underlying tension between black and Latino communities, exacerbated by the shrinking of the former and growth of the latter. (People may still associate the term “South-Central L.A.” with the black community but in fact it’s primarily Latino.) Ms. Kaplan also doesn’t mention Southern California has perhaps the biggest population of Asian Americans in the U.S. which cannot be neatly summarized by either ethnicity or socioeconomic class. Even “whites” are misleading here, as L.A. has a large population of Iranians, Armenians, and other ethnicities who are technically “white” but much more diverse than the usual dismissive use of the label.
So Southern California is much more complex than the usual “rich, privileged whites versus poor, oppressed black/brown” narrative. For a newspaper that claims to value multiculturalism, however, the NYT hardly ever acknowledges this in either its reporting or opinion pieces.
44
The new African American and Latino solidarity is one side of the coin. On the other side, Americans who have European decent—who will soon be a majority minority—are experiencing a new kind of solidarity based upon a new but now common shared experience: "Why are people of color persecuting me based on what they think I believe?" White people are beginning to share perhaps another more salient experience as well: "No matter what I do; what classical institutions I destroy, what apology I deliver to the collective, there is no forgiveness for me."
This half-split between whites and people of color was perhaps inevitable, racial factions tend to mimic class factions if there is enough overlap. If we are to conclude anything from Kaplan's article, is it this: unification over perceived hatred will only lead to sorrow and further racial resentment, in all Americans.
48
This is a very important observation. Calls for solidarity/social justice,on the one hand, and for “protecting the race” on the other are coming from the same moment of history.
2
Ms Kaplan please have hope. Today my community in SW Ohio celebrated Veterans Day. Children from the public school came and read poems. Those kids were every color. I couldn’t begin to guess what countries of origin were represented but all were there to celebrate America and thank those that help make it possible. Most of the veterans and politicians were white men with few exceptions but they were so grateful to the kids. My 14 yo and 11 yo learn about the Holocaust and slavery in honest and real ways. It is every parents responsibility to discuss our nation’s history of hate so we don’t repeat it. Gen Z will make rainbows if we just get out of their way.
48
In one sense, I don’t really distinguish between oppressors who define people by their race in order to exploit them, and victims who define themselves by their race in order to resist exploitation. Because the American ideal, if anyone still believes in it, is about self-creation, about escaping history, about using democratic institutions to create the conditions to make self-creation possible.
It seems to me that black and brown AND white and yellow people should be all banding together today, to oppose the oligarchs, the Trumps & the Bloombergs & the McConnells & the Bezos. We don’t oppose them because they are white. Many of our natural allies are white. We oppose them because they have too much power. And they use their power to divide us.
56
@Martin
Most Latino Americans and most Hispanic Americans are white.
Source: The Hispanic Population: 2010, U.S. Census Bureau, page 15.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/TX,US/PST045218
8
@Martin
I agree with you, except I don’t think Bloomberg should be on the list.
@William Case No, they are mixed indigenous/European. Self-reporting and birth certificates aren't accurate because they tend to use the white designation even when there is indigenous background.
1
“What has always separated Latinos from African-Americans is immigration.” The writer seems to forget or, at least, chooses to omit the obvious fact that there are also *black* immigrants in the US, and for those of us from the Caribbean and Africa, there are aspects of daily life and cultural navigation in the US that we share with black and brown Americans alike. Her “new” experience is one that many of us were already living. She would do better to acknowledge the heterogeneity of the black American experience.
74
@Lola This heterogeneity of the Black experience in America is very small and very new. It generally didn't even exist until after 1965 and didn't take off until the 80s and 90s.
She is talking about ADOS. If I were in Nigeria and talking about Nigerians I'm not sure I would find it necessary to mention the vanishingly small African-American expatriate community.
5
@Lilo She is talking about ADOS -- OK, and recent black immigrants from the Caribbean or South America are also descendants of enslaved persons, as the vast majority of Africans brought to the new world went to those places, where conditions were harsher and mortality much higher than in British North America.
4
@Lola
Latinos are not a racial group. All residents of Latin America are Latinos Blacks who come to the United States from Latin America are both African Americans and Latinos.
4
This seems like wishful thinking based on some highly limited anecdotes.
Hispanics are a very diverse ethnic group. They vote GOP at three times the rate of African Americans, and this is WITH Trump in office. Approximately 50-60% of Hispanics identify racially as "white". 42% of interracial marriages are between whites and hispanics, compared to only 11% of interracial marriages which are black / white. Low income and working class hispanic children make it to the upper middle class at twice the rate of black children from similar economic backgrounds.
Much of the evidence shows that Hispanics are on a trajectory of assimilation more similar to Italians and other "white" ethnics than they are to remaining a cohesive and permanent minority group.
That doesn't negate the need to fight racism. But I think progressives are being overly optimistic about depending on Hispanic Americans to show solidarity to a "brown" voting or activist block.
139
Most Americans welcome LEGAL immigrants of any color, but do not want ILLEGAL immigrants. They recognize that the US cannot afford (or choose not) to support our own citizens: the poor, the ill, elderly, disabled, veterans, et al., and that they and other US taxpayers cannot possibly support the hundreds of millions of foreigners who would like to come here, or the many millions of illegal immigrants who are already in the US.
US laws allow foreigners to seek entry and citizenship. Those who do not follow these laws are in this country illegally and should be detained and deported; this is policy in other countries, too.
The cruelty lies not in limiting legal immigration, or detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, or forcing those who wish to enter the US to wait for processing. What is cruel, unethical and probably illegal is encouraging parents to bring their children on the dangerous trek to US borders and teaching the parents how to game the system to enter the US by falsely claiming asylum, persecution, etc. Indeed, many believe bringing children on such perilous journeys constitutes child abuse.
No other nation has open borders, nor should the US.
130
No doubt racism exists in America along with lots of other isms. Bigotry has always been with us, not just against "people of color" but overweight people, disabled people, people who don't meet cultural norms of beauty, people with foreign accents, different religions, people who wear odd or unconventional clothes or have unconventional sexual identities or preferences. I suspect many "people of color" have prejudices against white people. Great leaders will address this in a way that doesn't seek to vilify people with prejudice but recognizes that we all have prejudices and must make a conscious effort to reflect on them and prevent them from impairing our judgement. Also, not every opinion that you disagree with happens to be a result of racism. I sure hope the democrats figure this out before they lose another election.
29
@Mark
I agree that bigotry exists in many forms, but you have to admit that racism is much more prevalent than other forms. Over 100 white nationalist groups currently exist. Policies throughout our history, from national laws down to small town sanctioned racism, have existed. Numerous isolated instances have been recorded of white people calling the police on black people for things like mowing a lawn, hanging out at Starbucks, and sleeping in a dorm common room. Numerous black men have been shot by white residents or white policemen for inconsequential or nonexistent offenses. So all bigotry is bad, but racism is bad and pervasive.
10
@Mark
‘I suspect many "people of color" have prejudices against white people.’
They do. But they generally don’t have the power to affect the lives of white people in the systemic ways that white people’s prejudice affects POC.
32
this alliance will only hold true for non-White Hispanics and African Americans. White Hispanics like many Cubans, most Argentinians are not part of this ... so it comes down to racialized experiences, that White Hispanics do not have.
1
This article is really reaching.
No one has any issue with immigration, if it is legal. Not once does the author seem to separate the two. If you’re coming to America illegally and hoping to use our resources, then it is the government’s job to see that you’re removed. Why doesn’t the author try entering Mexico illegally and write to us how her experience goes?
4
"...privileging the immigrant narrative of struggle over black folks’ narrative of struggle, something that’s been going on since the end of slavery. Latinos may struggle like us, but they have had the narrative advantage.
No longer. Nearly three years into this Trump presidency, this advantage has vanished."
I don't know what Ms Kaplan is talking about. Latinos have never been given the benefit of the "immigrant narrative." As a group, we've suffered violence, been forced from our land, belittled, segregated, and scorned even when returning from fighting in USAmerican wars.
The Latino history includes us being lynched, burned alive and whipped.
I don't understand why people like Ms Kaplan feels it necessary to promote a pecking order of pain. Can she really think it helps anyone?
15
Obsession with race and color is really what’s dividing the country. The media fuels the division. Good people are found in all colors and other good
People know that. Immigrants that enter the country legally are always welcome. The souther border is such a touch point because there has been so much illegal entry.
Why is this so hard for the media to understand?
3
“I have to confess, the tendency of many Americans to collapse black and brown into an ethnic monolith — a single political idea, a single struggle, too often fused by media and activists into a single phrase — has made me uneasy.”
Ms Kaplan, it makes millions of Americans uneasy when the media collapses legal and illegal immigration into a single phrase. And it’s frustrating when we (those that want an immigration policy that balances compassion for refugees with the practicalities of not being able to admit every human on Earth with a hardship) are lumped in with the actual racists and xenophobes.
Also...
“It’s worth noting that no one is talking about building a wall to keep out immigrants from other regions.”
I despise Trump and agree that he and much of his base are fueled by xenophobia - but this sentence doesn’t pass a red face test. What “other regions”? The only other border is with Canada, and to my knowledge the only “illegal” border crossings taking place between the US and Canada are Americans who can’t afford their Rx drugs, buying them for cheap in Canada and bringing them back in.
7
"African-Americans and Latinos have a new kind of solidarity."
No, they don't.
Many - if not the majority - of African Americans know they pay taxes that are higher because of the cost of illegal immigration. Poor African Americans see illegal immigrants with Federal and State benefits that we are told are not available to illegals.
Many African Americans see the surge - surges, actually - of Latinos as threatening to them. For decades, black Americans have recognized the need to reduce immigration, legal and illegal:
When she ran a commission on immigration reform under President Clinton, the late Barbara Jordan suggested the same reduction in immigration numbers, along with strict enforcement of immigration laws. She was right. She was also Black, and a Democrat: in those days, Democrats believed in enforcing immigration laws; many still do but their voices are rarely heard.
Peter Kirsanow, a commissioner on the 8-member The legal status would only hurt U.S. citizens, serving to “depress the wages and employment opportunities of African-American men and teenagers,” Kirsanow wrote, adding that all America would get out of the bargain is a poorly qualified workforce.
Kirsanow, a Black American, warned in a letter to President Obama that giving legal status to undocumented workers will pave the way for them to take the jobs that blacks, especially African-American men, need.
Who speaks for working-class Black Americans now? The Republican President.
6
I never heard black people use the term “black and brown” before Trump’s racist anti-immigrant campaign. In 2015, the black vote elected Rahm Emanuel mayor of Chicago over Chuy Garcia who supported public schools; Emanuel promptly closed schools in black neighborhoods. Separating Latino children from parents at the border resonated with the black experience of slavery and current mass incarceration of black women, and many black activists and celebrities have spoken against it.
Trump’s steady beat of racist comments and policies and the wave of white nationalism he’s engendered has created a rainbow alliance in opposition that can become a game-changer in American politics.
As an Asia-American who heard Martin Luther King speak at an anti-Vietnam war demonstration in New York in 1967, I’ve always been disappointed most Asians have been apolitical, with some immigrants so tied to the American dream they support whatever the government does. Trump’s opposition to legal family immigration and the rise of “go back to where you came from” attacks have increased Asian voter registration and participation in politics at the community and national level.
Republicans at the state level are focused on disenfranchising the black community, legal immigrants, and Native Americans. Minorities fighting for their own rights are also defending democracy, human decency, and the future of the nation.
1
remember that latinos are an ethnic group, not a race. latinos can be any race. latinos can be black, indigenous, white european, mixed, asian, etc. just look at central and south america - very mixed people with lots of others who came from Europe and Asia to live, as well as African slaves forced to move there. so that's one thing. you can respect that different groups have different histories while still feeling solidarity with other poc. as a u.s. born Mexican-American I certainly feel solidarity with other poc, particularly those who are also demonized the way Mexicans are by the administration. there are people of all colors who are found to have "white" values either by the way they vote or their cultural habits and preferences. that's a whole other story.
4
If we step back from all the heated rhetoric and deal strictly with the facts; we have to accept that this land is THEIR land as well, if not more than, ours.
By pretty much sheer force, the US took much of Mexico's land and we now call it Texas, NM, AZ & California. Go a little farther back in time & we realize that every square inch of what is now America, was pretty much taken.
I know that my statements won't be liked but I want to put things in a broader context. The Brown people do have a right to be here.
My African foreparents were captured in Africa by Africans and sold to white people who forced us to come here for their profit. Those white people grew tremendously wealthy on our forced free labor and so the prosperity of America was created.
Now we share oppression with the Brown people mainly because we have not, as a broader group, adapted to grow our strengths and number to progress as a whole.
I close by reminding all these so self-righteous people who are descendants of immigrants, that the Browns were forced out of and off their land that was then given to your ancestors. As for us blacks, there was NEVER atonements made for all that we died for in making America mighty. Working 7 days a week, giving birth in the fields for your wealth. There was No 40 acres and no mule.
Like these words or not, they are the facts.
7
This writer's case against walls amounts to the preposterous argument that the citizens of the United States owe schooling, doctoring and other services to anyone in the world who cares to violate the border and enter.
5
Not all Latinos are "brown." Some are black, some are white, some are other races. Equating origin in Latin America with brown skin greatly oversimplifies and stereotypifies a diverse group of people. One could argue that some people from India have brown skin as well. Would they qualify for Erin Aubry Kaplan's use of the word "brown"?
4
I hate Trump and his vile advisor Stephen Miller, who seems to be Trump’s immigration avatar of cruelty. But their personal odiousness does not change the fact that we need a rational immigration policy that respects the human rights and dignity of immigrants while also supporting the country’s legitimate need for real borders with immigration rules of law. Our values cannot tolerate what Trump and Miller are doing, and our limited resources cannot tolerate unlimited immigration. We need rational compromises that balance our nation’s values and economic need for immigrants with our need for security and sovereignty. The problem is not a lack of ideas; it is an atmosphere of grotesque hyper-partisanship that perpetuates this crisis and the toll it is taking on peoples lives, as well as causing the erosion of our historic values.
3
The black and Puerto Rican caucus in New York State government has existed for decades.
While the current president has stoked a tremendous national divide, in Los Angeles his hateful speech and and polices seem to have fostered a new sense of harmony and unity. At least that's my perception. I remember the fracture of Watts and smoke blowing into my apartment windows from the reaction to Rodney King; I remember the fear and the distrust. LA has changed and it's nice.
There's a different feeling in the air, a twinkle in they eye, a quiet sense of pride in the idea that yes, we really all can get along.
If I can go all bi-coastal, the feeling in LA today is not that different from that of NYC when there's a metropolitan crisis, like a subway strike, a hurricane or a terror attack.
I hope the new spirit continues when Trump is gone. And I sincerely hope he's goes soon.
4
Many thanks Ms. Kaplan, a really interesting piece. One thought: Americans, or rather US citizens, are often unaware of the fact that a lot of their country growth was by acquisition or military conquest of lands belonging to other people, contrary to the prevailing narrative of europeans claiming an "empty land". And while most of it was land owned by Native Americans, a significant portion was in the hands of Spanish speaking people: Florida from Spain, and most of the south west and portions of the west acquired or taken from Mexico, as the toponyms show: Nevada, Montana, Colorado etc.
So basically, propelled by a historic anomaly (massive transoceanic migration from Europe), the US took over areas which are the natural expansion area for the heavily populated southern portion of North America, now Mexico. Demographics are stubborn, and trying to stop them on political basis is the equivalent to try to stop the wind with your hand.
3
Our values aren't where they should be in America. We fail to recognize the good in working together; which capitalism should be about, in it's attempt to compensate individuals with incentives, but also fairly for their contributions. Instead, it's always been more about competition and division, which results in exploitation, vast inequality and the devaluing notion that one group will have to support another.
2
I believe all people should be treated as individuals and should have equal legal rights and opportunity (not equality of outcome), regardless of what man-made social group they happened to be born into. I feel solidarity with others who share this view, regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality, etc. I do not feel solidarity with people merely because we share a race, ethnicity, nationality, or other involuntary social group, and believe such solidarity is fundamentally harmful. Solidarity should be based on individual character and values, not what group one happened to be born into.
22
Working in South Central 25 years ago, I was struck how many coworkers of mine, black and white, were in support of Prop 187. This in a LAUSD school where the effect of denying an education to illegal immigrant children would have meant disaster.
Of course, many whites favored the proposition, too, given that it passed by the astounding margin of 60%. A liberal judge shelved the proposition almost immediately but, as odious as it was, I wonder if squelching it then later gave rise to Trump's ability to use the issue as his main cudgel in 2016.
4
Pew Research does an annual survey of black, brown and white attitudes on race.
This year's results do not even come close to validating this heart-warming anecdotal essay.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/09/key-findings-on-americans-views-of-race-in-2019/
7
Perspective on attitudes (pew research aside) permit people to simultaneously hold both positive and negative attitudes toward the same object.Ms. Kaplan's heart-warming essay and your comment (both) showed my conflicting . . no . .. ambivalent attitudes about this topic.
Now I think I'll go have a chat with my neighbor.
This is one of the downsides of using the term "people of color", as it conflates two different narratives and challenges.
10
The nastiest and most enduring message about race, migration, and colonization in the US is this:
Nearly any difference can ultimately be overcome, just don't be Black (or Native).
These two stains cannot be whitened.
It is no coincidence that the people seeking refuge in the US in in recent years have frequently been both.
1
I wonder if the Americans ever wonder that all territories occupied by them after their Independence in 1776 could be "colonies" and it would make sense that displaced people of those colonies are returning back to their homeland.
American is not the name necessarily of an Anglo country but the name of a continent! Its people for millennium have traveled across it in peace and health. the United States should learnt to adapt to America instead of trying to change the American continent to its own culture.
13
The name of the continent is North America.
There's a continent called South America as well.
The countries in both continents have their own names, and have their own borders, and the right to control those borders.
5
It's only important to keep the narrative separate from a historical perspective. For anything else it's important to stick together and unify as much of the narrative as possible. Look at the Native Americans. They focused so much effort on their distinctive tribal and linguistic identifies. Now most have been erased from history. Band together. It's the only way.
2
Interesting perspective. I have always thought that African-Americans have a distinctively poignant history of maltreatment here in America; and that Latino immigrants are treated pretty much like other groups who have chosen to emigrate here - that is to say, moderately badly but not nearly as horribly as African Americans.
Think about the waves of immigrants from southern Europe and Eastern Europe (of which my ancestors were part) in the early 1900s. Those folks (similar to recent Latino immigrants) came over of their own volition, but were dirt poor, had minimal formal education, spoke minimal English, and were disliked and marginalized when they arrived. Things got better for them over the succeeding couple of generations, as they learned English, assimilated, and figured out that achieving high levels of education (and/or starting your own business) are the key to success here.
16
@GBR
The key issue is that those were legal immigrants. What's more, quite a few were refused entry at Ellis Island.
10
@Grace Please explain how someone can simultaneously be such a strong supporter of upholding immigration laws and have a complete disregard for constitutional matters like separation of powers, emoluments, abuse of power by the office of the President and a long etcetera that is constantly violated by the President and his party.
The answer is racial animosity.
I think America needs to do everything possible to eliminate illegal immigration, but the way the issue is handled shows that the effects and consequences of it are of no relevance to this administration, just the political value of knocking on brown people.
5
@GBR
Your ancestors did not suffer the indignity of being visible and learning and speaking unaccented English removed the last restrictions. Most Latinos and people of African descent have no such luxury. Many immigrants of European ancestry only discovered they were white on setting foot in the USA.
Ms Kaplan points out wonderful way to create civil society: over-the-fence conversation. It's a lovely way to put good intentions into action, and engage other parties. Talk to your neighbours, and listen. Democracy isn't rocket-science: it's talking to each other, and respecting each other. And taking it to the ballot-box. Make good count.
8
@PAG a thousand times YES.
As a native-born American of Middle Eastern ancestry (Assyrian Christian), I've seen firsthand the kinds of targeting Ms. Kaplan describes. Any brown-skinned person is now a target.
But it is important to understand why all brown-skinned people are being targeted. Trump is inciting violence against brown-skinned people, because nearly half this country believes as he does. It's a winning strategy for him.
The hazards of this "strategy" to the rest of us haven't been given enough attention. So far, most have felt comfortable treating racism as just one of Trump's character flaws. But it is much more than this. Trump has energized his base by using race and will continue to bang that drum through November 2020.
Why? Because racism gets him votes. The more he employs his hateful screeds the stronger his base becomes. We now see tens of millions of Trump voters proudly screaming their hatred of dark skinned people. If Trump's base didn't want to hear Trump's disgusting racist rants these past three years, he would have stopped.
Trump is bringing his voters the America they want. And this means that tens of millions of our brown-skinned citizens are at now increasingly at risk.
Trump must continue to stoke his base's hatred, if he is to retain power. Those of us of Middle Eastern or Hispanic or African ancestry may well be the next people he orders into camps.
So understand this: the longer we kowtow to Trump supporters, the more dangerous he - and they - will become.
30
Blacks and Latinos overlap here in New York City in many ways. When you get your hair done week after week by Dominican or Puerto Rican women; when you ride the subway and see smaller (than normal) people selling peeled mangos and oranges or shaved ice treats to support their families. When you pass by Hispanic men working construction or see them hanging out at Home Depot looking for work; when you frequent towns in New Jersey like West New York where most of the shops carry Spanish names, you come to recognize the Latin flavor and culture within your neighborhood and with society. I've always recognized that Brown people are treated similarly to Blacks, often much worse, and thus I tend to extend myself towards this societal group and identify with their crises. I once saw a Black woman seated on the subway look with scorn at a Latino man. I looked at her incredulously. I couldn't understand how she didn't recognize that Brown people are kindred spirits to Blacks. There can be no separation of the two groups.
9
@Odehyah Gough-Israel
I grew up in NYC and can tell you that overlap you mention is limited to the city. After moving away from New York, I saw that Puerto Ricans and Dominicans utilized their whiteness and treated blacks the same way the non-Hispanic whites did.
2
I grew up in NYC, and one of the reasons I left NYC in the new millennium was because I saw the inequality that ADOS faced in procuring jobs if they did not speak Spanish; NYC has turned into a Spanish speaking clan; those who are not Latino do not get any jobs dealing with public; English speakers need not apply much as in Miami.
This “new group” of people, Latinos, are not assimilating as other groups have done; they feel entitled to have their language dominate.
1
This is a great article...can't help but continue to feel invisible as an Arab American here, though...
10
I am African american and i do like this because it is talking about how my race should be should treated not like criminals and the reason we act like this is because that what people think about us and that all we know because are parents and there parents did this and that all they knew better
3
Keep in mind that many Chicanos forebears were in the the southwest while it was part of Mexico, and because of their mixed racial background could be considered indigenous Americans. The much hated racial epithet "Greaser" dates from the early 19th century
8
Struggle and oppression by privileged oppressors have a way of uniting a people. Black or Brown—-It’s all the same to the oppressor.
6
A very disheartening read...I hope we can return to good ole pre-Trump attitudes as soon as you know who leaves office
If you substituted "Jew" for "Latino" in this article, would the author have the same view? Is the writer confusing a language with race? Jews have never been considered Caucasian or white, and every European country considered Jews as a separate race. And, many many "Latinos" are as white as a person from France, Germany or Italy. Yet the author groups African-Americans with Latinos. Why?
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@Donna Gray
Overt racism, like racial profiling via traffic stops, can only happen if it is easy to identify the person as a particular ethnic group. That is why the author uses the term 'brown'
1
@Donna Gray
The problem is with the catchall terms "latino" and "hispanic". When you lump a Spaniard from Madrid, or an Afro-Caribbean from Santo Domingo with a Zapotec from Puebla there will be confusion. Ask the Spaniard or Domican what a tortilla is, they'll give a different answer than the Mexican.
3
Thank you for your post Ms. Kaplan. I am guessing that with last name "Kaplan" your own identity may include some Jewish roots. If I am correct (or not)- what are your thoughts on the situation of Jewish Americans today given the rise of murderous anti Semitism alone side the flourishing of murderous prejudice directed at Latinos and African Americans? Any hopes of a revived/reinvigorated alliance among members of these communities?
7
ADOS/Black citizens and Latinos have very little in common, many Latinos seek to obtain the White status in America and that includes separating themselves and discriminating against Black people . Latinos are People of Color who like others benefit from the struggles and success of ADOS/Black citizens.ADOS/Black citizens history, lineage and place in America and world history is unique, separate from others. I cannot recall them bringing anything to the table that we Blacks benefit from as they do.But on the other hand we history tells us they have greatly benefited and advanced themselves from the ADOS/Black citizen struggle .
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@Hayward JOHNSON Agree in many instances. In California those of Mexican background were listed as white on their birth certificates, even though they might have brown skin.
A friend pointed out to me back in 1968-69 that those of Latin-American background were perfectly happy to be considered second class citizens as long as Black people were third class.
When Black people demanded full civil rights for themselves and all Americans, that made the Latin-Americans realize that they should have always demanded full civil rights too, but until that time they weren't inclusive.
5
Mr. Johnson, I assume you do not have information about the history of the American Southwest. If you did, I know you may not have made this comment. Just a couple of things to start with - in Texas more Mexican, Mexican-American and Native persons were lynched and otherwise summarily executed than were Black persons. It was demographics; there were so many more brown people who were on land that the whites wanted and felt they could simply take in any way they wanted - mostly by force and theft and usually led by law enforcement. Black persons were not present in any significant numbers until after the Civil War and were not in the way of white control of land and resources. Then Jim Crow and its terrors applied to both black and brown persons. Reading your comment, I am very much reminded of the common signs of my youth - “ no N.........s, no Mexicans, no Dogs”. Hernandez vs the State of Texas in 1953 (during which a US Supreme Court Justice referred to Mexican Americans as “greasers”) is telling regarding separate but equal as it applied to the brown community. There is a rich history across the American Southwest and West Coast of brown persons that has very much shaped the American landscape, including contributions to human and civil rights. I hope you will take the time to learn about it. It adds much to the rich tapestry of our country’s history - so much more than what we were taught in school.
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"Latinos are hated not because they’re so foreign, but because they’re so familiar. .. It’s almost as if Americans feel they’ve earned the right to abuse Latino immigrants ..." Forgive me for not addressing the main point of this article: an emergent black/brown commonality of experience/solidarity that is also cognizant of the important differences between the two groups experientially. It's just the opening sentences this comment (which occur towards the end of the piece) are NOT applicable to all Americans. I do not feel as though I've "earned the right" to hate brown people!!! (Or anyone.) I won't ever deny the racial animus that characterizes race relations in this country; but, do inflammatory statements such as the above do anything to help us overcome this problem?
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If you don’t mind I’m going to hang onto my quaint, apparently outdated notion that you and your Salvadoran neighbour get along because you’re both decent people, individuals defined by countless characteristics of which your ethnicity is but one.
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@JFB
It seems to me that, in the hierarchy of common bonds, shared oppression usually outranks a shared love of golden retrievers.
2
Your color-blind thinking more broadly shows me you haven’t grasped the reality of modern racism. Simply, it show me you did not fully read or understand this article.
Spot on article. Well argued and convincing.
1
you know what though? the reason people move from Central America is because the plutocracy treats the majority of people like dogs and exploits them and underpays them and not make them feel a part of their own country.
why don't we see opinion pieces decrying that?
As bad as this country is toward Latinos, it's much better here than where they came from.
The worst economic inequality in the world is in Central America.
Let's not forget that.
21
I guess I am confused. Minority unemployment is at record lows under this administration so what is it that is a real verses imagined or wished for problem?
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@Thomas Smith
Minority unemployment was zero during slavery. Would you like us to return to those inglorious days. Maybe wages and benefits would be a better yardstick.
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@Thomas Smith Unemployment may be down but salaries are NOT up. Most of those jobs are minimum wage.
4
Such great low wage service jobs.
I have never met a black or white skinned human being in life!
Can anyone tell me where I can see one...?
I've seen people of different shades of brown and reddish hues, but no black or white person.
13
Hope that solidarity extends into the period when rulers figure out a plan to divide. Stay united. Expand to include poor whites who have been abused since at least medieval Europe. They got the guns, but we've got the numbers.
7
Too superficial. In Trump's America, any person who has any sense of decency, community, morals or ethics has a solidarity, in self-defense, of the GOP and their horror show.
15
Why is this meaningful opinion in the paper today? It made me squirm because it was so familiarly expressed. For myself, it read as if all the exclamation marks were systematically worked over by a metal file..the tool.
Just two more obvious thoughts: Regardless of our varied histories, and the dehumanizing, traumatic places we know people have been and still are subjected to, from the cradle to the grave, if our collective response to the 2020 national and local elections stays on dull, it will not be Never Again! It will be Here we go again.
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Thank you Erin A. Kaplan for this knowledgable, wonderful opinion. I am an ally to all people who face discrimination and do not lump people together. I live in Los Osos (spanish: the bears), in the county of San Luis Obispo (spanish: Saint Louis IV Bishop), California (spanish word that refers to a fictional island found in Spanish literature). I fully understand the the U.S., its constitution and its criminal justice system is based on racism. It is great so see these alliances between people of color. Please remember you have many allies.
4
Too much of this article feels like “oppression  Olympics” about who has historically had it worse even though the point is supposed to be solidarity in the current day between two groups of marginalized people.
15
It's known as keeping them in their proper place . Black or brown it doesn't matter ; it is the fear of being outnumbered and losing power . White privilege on steroids fueled by fast becoming a minority and a certain president stirring the racial pot . The only distinction made in America is the color of the skin ; that all Americans especially those termed Latin-American and the current popular( ugh Latinx designation ) Asian American , African American , etc accept this distinction is harmful and injures them . To date the term white-American is not part of the racial distinction ; no matter what color all should be just plain American . These labels do for a good many Americans hurt them .
2
In the old days, people said Anglo-American or "WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant)" tho' most people we call "white" don't fit those categories any more. The whole problem of race is divide-and-conquer - race and color are essentially fictions, because no one is really "black" or "white," and if we all did DNA tests, most of us would probably come out "all of the above."
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@Stephanie Wood Agreed but tell that to those who disagree . One could say denial abounds . The fact of the matter is that most WASPs will disagree and this article is really about how darker skins will be discriminated against simply because of their lack of lily whiteness in spite of social status , education , etc .
Changing racial demographics are scaring white people -- especially older whites -- and in their fright they've sought shelter in the arms of Donald Trump. But I, too, am worried about the changing racial makeup of the United States, and the reason is because I know that the popular narrative of what America is, and has been, is changing. And as overcorrections are common, perhaps inevitable, I worry about the implications thereof.
No one should try to soften the edges of the black experience; nor is subsuming that experience under a "people of color" rubric a good idea, for it would dim harsher particularities. What I want to do is have people take a look at human history generally, and see American history in that light, whereupon it looks rather less harsh. Indeed, the surprising thing about America isn't its harshness but the extent to which the hypocritical implementation of founding ideals propelled profound, if imperfect change, in order to make those ideals real(er).
People who have been educated in gender studies, postcolonial literature, critical race theory, and such like, see the American, indeed the Western, story in a hypercritical light, and have in effect sainted its victims, creating a victim-and-oppressor hierarchy that ignores the crooked timber of humanity. It's not that I want to whitewash American history -- I just want it contextualized and balanced. I'm pessimistic; and I certainly do not see humanity as populated by angels and demons.
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@David L, Jr. Sorry, this article isn't factually correct. Elected officials and even many experts in science and the environmental movement have been cowed into silence when it comes to addressing the elephant in California’s living room: population growth. California is on track to hit 60 million people by mid-century. The biggest casualty of the debate over illegal immigration in the U.S. has been the ability to discuss openly the staggering effects of population growth on critical resources such as water, hospitals & schools. The Census Bureau data shows that the nation's immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached nearly 38 million in March of this year. This is the highest number in the nation's history. No nation has ever attempted to incorporate 38 million newcomers into its society. As a share of the population, one in eight U.S. residents is now an immigrant (legal and illegal), the highest level in 80 years. About one-third of immigrants are illegal aliens. Moreover, 1.5 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) continue to arrive each year. Illegal immigrants ARE draining national & state treasuries. That is a fact. The U.S. isn't oppressing anyone by choosing to enforce our immigration laws. To believe otherwise is simply progressive nonsense. Can the left EVER admit that a large number of illegal immigrants in the US, many of whom are relatively unskilled, gives rise to economic competition that harms job & wage prospects for voters who live here?
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@Bill Brown
I’m no economic expert, although I did passably well in the couple of college courses I took on the subject. The teaching back then was that competition was a good thing, resulting in better and cheaper stuff for all of us along the way. If one is willing to do hard, dirty work that others shun, how is that harming the wage and job prospects for the voters that shun such jobs? I’ve roofed a few houses in my time. It is neither fun nor rewarding, even for a hobby roofer like me, who could stand back and appreciate, for a fleeting moment, the tangible sense of accomplishment that was there to see.
2
@Dale Irwin This is a progressive myth. Illegal immigration has a very large effect on the low-skilled labor market. Immigrants comprise between one-fourth and one-third of workers in cleaning, construction and food service occupations. Roughly half of these immigrant workers are estimated to be illegal immigrants. In contrast, just 9 percent of journalists and 6 percent of lawyers are immigrants, and almost none are illegal immigrants. This partly explains why the argument that "immigrants only do jobs Americans don't want" is widely accepted in the media and among elites in general. But the fact is, the overwhelming majority of low-wage jobs are done by less-educated native-born Americans, not immigrants. Unemployment and non-work has grown significantly among less-educated Americans. In 2007 there were more than 22 million adult natives (18 to 64 years of age) with no education beyond high school either unemployed or not in the labor market. Wages and benefits for such workers have also generally stagnated or declined in recent years. Most Americans do not face significant job competition from immigrants, but those who do are generally the poorest and most vulnerable.
3
People who fear too many immigrants ought to be outside the White House demanding Trump stop denying the climate crisis and promoting fossil fuels. The migration pressure caused by a deteriorating environment will make today's movements of peoples seem trivial.
I don't know anyone who advocates "open borders". But immigration policies based on racism and religious bigotry aren't how we should be deciding who and how many should be welcomed.
Fear of immigrants based on claims that we can't support our sick and elderly and provide a decent education for all are Republican talking points that deflect attention form the gross inequality caused by predatory capitalism. Republicans, not immigrants are the problem.
l attended a Sanders rally in Coralville, IA. yesterday. (I'm a Warren supporter at this point.) AOC talked about the importance of a solidarity which requires supporting people who aren't like us, including people of different races and religions. The emphasis on economic inequality scares the very rich because it breaks down barriers that have historically been used to divide us and cause us to vote against our own interests.
30
As a white man who has dated a naturalized indigenous South American Latina over the past decade, it seems clear to me that one of the greatest commonalities of interest between the black and Latino community is their experience/fear with the police and other law enforcement.
My girlfriend long ago had "the talk" with her sons, when they were young. And even though both are now adults in their 30s, I can tell she still carries around a visceral fear of her sons crossing paths with the police, that tragedy can strike at any time.
12
I believe that ethnically different -- not to use the term "color different" -- groups have their own cultural, psychological, and possibly religious characteristics evolved either as inherited or acquired features. The problem is the integration of ALL in a society dominated by the descendants of European settlers of the US. To paraphrase Danton's words, needed is "Of the tolerance, more of the tolerance, and always of the tolerance".
1
@Tuvw Xyz You're completely right, and it's a fact most are uncomfortable with. I also agree with tolerance, but there comes a point at which integration and tolerance of a certain degree are unachievable ideals, and to ignore the realities for a utopian vision is in reality doing much more harm than good.
3
As the author points out, Black-Brown solidarity cannot be assumed; it has to be built, and it has to be articulated, as this essay does so well. The forces that are clinging to power in the face of demographic and generational change fear this solidarity. It helps explain what just happened in Virginia: multiracial organizations mobilized to defeat the old guard. The new majority can and must lead us to a truly inclusive and multi-racial democracy. This is what gives me hope.
16
I think this is more complex than the author makes it out to be,
Sure, a lot of it is simple racism. And a lot of Trump's comments are racist.
But African-Americans and Latinos are often grouped by things beyond race--like poverty and struggles to achieve academically.
While the African-American population has held steady at about 12-13%, the Hispanic population has soared, and continues go grow. Hispanics now account for 17% of the national population, which grew by 29% 2000 and 2007--4 times the rate of the national population. A lot of that growth came from illegal immigration.
Hispanics are projected to make up a third of the nation's population by 2050.
So, callous as it sounds, the needs of the African-American community are both historically understood and continue to be small in terms of population relative to the overall population.
The needs of the Hispanic population are new in terms of size and growing as their population grows.
That is of concern to many.
28
Divide and conquer is a classic tactic. Virtually every class/race/sex and orientation is vulnerable. In fact urban/rural divides are prime targets too. North versus South. Big State, small state etc.
But the economic basis is critical. Class differences explain best why people use the divide/conquer weapon. A rich person has more to fear from solidarity between disparate groups. "We all do better when we all do better!", said Paul Wellstone.
19
Some people do collapse the diverse origins and cultures of all brown and black people into one category. The same is true of East Asian and South Asian peoples and Latinx people and white people. The racial categories of the US are highly problematic. Our language fails us. At the same time, there has been moments in US history when brown and black people have consciously united. The same is true for Asians. Just think of what the term Asian American collapses. And the same is true for Latinx people and white people. What is perhaps most important for people in the US is to be rooted in their communities with many strong ties--neighborly, collegially, religiously, politically, artistically-- to other communities.
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@Joyce
It's funny, I've never described myself as an Asian. I don't speak Japaneses or Korean. Nonetheless, we are often lumped together, even though we have completely different histories.
5
America isn't perfect, but it has tried harder than almost any nation in history to be "fair" to everyone.
Sure, the Trump movement is not our finest moment, but neither is constant harping on the negative. Life really isn't fair for anyone, but it's closer to fair in the USA than all of the places from which we receive immigrants.
Look forward, not back and we might manage to make some progress.
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@Keith
Good to see you have studied all the world and know how "fair" they are to everybody. I was wondering- tell me about Finland. How about New Zealand?
How can a country that has the highest inequality in all the economically developed world, and among the highest poverty rate, be fair to everybody?
This article does not "harp on the negative." What it does is talk about the injustices certain groups of people have to go through. Pretending it is not there is not going to make it go away.
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@Keith
Dear Peter Wolf,
I have been an expatriate American on and off for all 64 years of my journey on this earth. I have lived on five continents, lived, not just taken a senior trip to Britain or France. You know had to learn the language, fit into the culture...
While there are some very nice places around the world like the USA, the US is unique in the huge variety of cultures and nationalities that co-exist here.
I know that racism is still an evil that continues to persist in our country and we need to be vigilant to work against this blight.
Nevertheless the US is one of the best places for racial minorities. Finland not so much. New Zealand is better, but most of the world is far more hostile to racial minorities than the USA, including most of Europe..
I have not been everywhere but I have been to 50 countries and likely have a better reckoning than most people about conditions around the world.
In summary, Keith is making a very reasonable statement. Yours on the other hand is mostly false.
59
I think nowadays it's more fair in Canada and more fair in western Europe and Scandinavia. It's never been fair to African-Americans, due to divide-and-conquer tactics practiced by the British centuries ago.
5