http://www.alternet.org/story/35860/

FWIW, despite our occasional tiffs on issues such as wages and job availability, Blacks and Latinos benefit tremendously from each other’s growing political power overall.

We both share an interest in preserving affirmative action and confronting the assaults of the White “privilege class.”

By helping to support e.g. amnesty for “illegal” immigrants (who have in fact been invited in and worked very hard by the US corporate class), we are also supporting the legalization and rewarding of a class that was long denied fair compensation for their labor, just as Blacks once were.

Also, both Blacks and Hispanics tend to support liberal political figures who look out for our interests.

We won’t see eye-to-eye on everything. And yes, Latinos can sometimes be cliquish, but I don’t mind that– if Latinos want to use Spanish in their communities, they have a legal right. The USA took the Southwest in the Mexican War remember, and that region, like Florida and Puerto Rico, has laws that explicitly give rights to Spanish as an official language in wide public application. Besides, Spanish isn’t hard to learn. Yo lo hablo sin mucho dificultidad, y he aprendido el espanol para solo cinco meses!

The point is, Latinos and Blacks are natural allies, we’re both very dark-skinned peoples who’ve been brutalized and victimized by the British and their Anglo cousins in the USA for centuries. Whites hate us both. And only by sticking together can we stand up for ourselves and protect our rights here.

I would not consider all Hispanics to be the same, but I never hear them talking about Black and Latino Issues. It is always the other way around. Blacks talking about Latinos.

Ilegal immigration if encouraged will be the death knell economically for Blacks in America.

This is not our fight– Once Hispanics get here, they make it seem they want to work, everyone else, Blacks in particular wants to collect a welfare check. In short — let us stay out of this fight. They are fighting for their half of the pie, not for anyone else. I could change my views at a later time, but right now that is how I see it.