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E-mail StoryLeonel Martinez: I told you Latinos would embrace Obama!
| Wednesday, Jun 25 2008 10:27 AM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jun 25 2008 10:26 AM
It doesn't take long as a columnist to discover that, as if being scolded about your real opinions isn't bad enough, a lot of readers are anxious to slap fight you over something you never said. Take the argument that relatively few of the nation's Latinos voted for Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential primary because they are racist.
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About four months ago, I wrote a column that disputed that popular theory. Sure, some Latinos are racist since there are racists in every ethnic and racial group, but I hadn't seen any evidence that the problem is worse among Hispanics.
Therefore, I argued, you couldn't dismiss overwhelming Latino support for Sen. Hillary Clinton over Obama as the result of racism.
I thought it was a modest enough statement that would generate few heated responses. Until the e-mails started coming in.
The two groups loathe each other, readers insisted. How dare I suggest there is no racial animosity between African-Americans and Latinos, they said, when the evidence is everywhere.
Blacks and Hispanics fight for the same jobs, readers said. They hurl slurs at each other. Gang scuffles and school riots erupt between Hispanics and blacks. One incredulous reader even suggested I read a book on the Mexican Mafia, although I'm not sure how that would help since most of those gentlemen are convicted felons and therefore can't vote.
But let's back up for a minute: The original column never claimed that there is absolutely no racism between Hispanics and blacks. Only someone suffering from a severe case of naïveté would believe that. It said that you can't assume most Hispanics supported Clinton because as a whole, they dislike African-Americans.
That's a different argument.
Now comes more evidence that despite being slammed for their supposed hatred of blacks, the vast majority of Latinos have happily switched to Obama. The picture didn't start to become clear until Clinton bowed out of the presidential primary. Would Hispanics refuse to support an African-American candidate and defect to the GOP?
According to a Gallup Poll summary of surveys released earlier this month, the answer is no. After questioning about 25,000 registered voters nationwide, it found that Obama enjoys a 62 percent to 29 percent advantage over Republican rival John McCain among Latinos.
Does that sound like most Hispanic voters are seething with racial hatred?
To be honest, Gallup's results weren't much of a surprise to poll watchers like me who know that Hispanics almost always favor Democrats. Although Latino voters increasingly characterize themselves as political independents, especially the younger ones, most still tend to vote for the party of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Years of Republican efforts to woo Latinos have had little lasting success. And the GOP's tough stance on immigration hasn't helped although McCain has bucked hardliners in his own party by taking a more moderate stance on that issue.
The fact that Latinos quickly embraced Obama and didn't jump into the McCain camp suggests that, if anything, they aren't biased against African-Americans.
They're biased against the GOP.
Opinions expressed are those of Leonel Martinez, not The Californian. His column appears every other Thursday. E-mail him at lmartinez@bakersfield.com or leave a voice mail at 395-7631.