cover image The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation Between African Americans and Hispanics

The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation Between African Americans and Hispanics

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, . . Middle Passage, $19.95 (232pp) ISBN 978-1-881032-22-9

Social critic Hutchinson (The Emerging Black GOP Majority ) deftly explains the challenges posed by immigration to an African-American audience wary of a Latino threat played up by the media. As the growing Latino electorate gains political favor, Hutchinson observes that the black community is wondering where new immigrants stand nationally on key issues of education, housing, jobs, health care and political empowerment. A backlash has mobilized black protests on amnesty and border enforcement, he adds, while many Latino immigrants, as well as former Mexican president Vicente Fox, have embraced negative stereotypes about African-Americans, causing a bitter schism between the two cultures. Though Hutchinson tends to emphasize the conflicts that have defeated coalition-building and compromise, and some of his opinions are delivered in very broad terms (such as suggesting that Latinos support the Iraq war), this abbreviated book generally invites a fruitful dialogue on the obstacles to unifying black and brown communities. (Oct.)