What should we think of Latino/black “tensions?”

DURHAM: Known for something other than the Bulls

Anybody who says there is no tension between this country’s growing Latino population and the numbers of African-American people who live here is being Pollyanna-ish.

I comprehend the sense among some black people who see the surging numbers of Latinos (the official Census Bureau population count for 2010 is going to make them twinge later this year) and feel like, once again, they are being surpassed in our society.

IT DOESN’T HELP that some Latinos go out of their way to make distinctions that most people of sense wouldn’t notice, all because they don’t want to be thought of as being black, or tied to black people, in any way.

Yet to think that the issue doesn’t get any more complex than that is nothing more than being simple-minded. Personally, I sense that for all the times that Latinos shake our heads in bewilderment at something done by a black person, there are just as many times that we are equally amazed at the actions of white people.

In short, you all can be pretty ridiculous at times. Then again, there are times when my own ethnic brethren can do something stupid that the nativist element eagerly tries to associate with the masses.

Personally, I think that we have two dueling groups in terms of a Latino population and a black population, and there are going to be occasions when their interests will coincide, and others when they will conflict.

THERE WILL BE the times when our ethnic interests will be more like those other ethnic groups that have made the move to this country and become a part of the overall society, with some of our traits merging into the mass and being picked up by others.

Now what brought on this little literary diatribe on my part concerning our current ethnic/race relations in this country?

It was reading a recent report published in the Herald-Sun newspaper of Durham, N.C. (which apparently has more going on these days than Duke University basketball).

A murder last year resulted in the arrests of five young men. The people who now face criminal charges for the death of Bernardo Medina Ponce are working their way through the legal process.

MEDINA WAS NOT born in this country, and officials suspect his command of the English language was weak enough that he didn’t fully appreciate that the five black men confronting him were armed, and wanted his money.

So we have a Latino killed by black men, and some locals are calling it a hate crime, saying that the would-be robbers singled Medina out because of his ethnicity. Others who don’t like to have to acknowledge hate crimes are saying that the men would have tried to rob somebody, and Medina just had the crummy luck of coming within their eyesight at the exact wrong point in time.

An officer with the local county Sheriff’s Department says this is not a new trend. While making it clear to the Herald-Sun that he was merely offering his opinion, and not that of the sheriff, he said such black-on-Latino crimes have been taking place since 1997 – and he claims they are only going to increase in total.

“The targeting of innocent Latinos will soon manifest itself in violent ethnic conflict between blacks and Latinos,” he said to the Durham-based newspaper.

OUCH!

But what concerns me more is the part of this officer’s report that says “law-abiding” people won’t have to worry much. Following the logic that people used to express about organized crime that it was only criminals ripping off each other, the officer said, “The conflict will most likely occur between gang members.”

I’m wondering how many people are going to take this train of thought and try to exploit it in ways to provoke Latino/black tensions so as to benefit themselves. I’m not saying that this sheriff’s department officer is trying to do so. 

But his law enforcement logic sounds like something that could easily be distorted by certain people who are eager to stir things up.

WHICH MIGHT VERY well be the best reason for Latinos and black people to seriously think of putting aside differences that some might use to keep us separate – if we’re not careful, the only winners will be those nativist nitwits who are probably the grand-children of the segregationists of old.

As fior those of you who are about to tell me THAT statement is oversimplified and a generalization, I'd say it's about as accurate as trying to claim that all Latino and African-American people are constantly at each others' throats.

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