*Latino

As bad as this is for republicans, what is worse is that their voting block continues to shrink. If they lose this one, four years from now the number of people willing to vote for them will be even less, unless they do a complete 180 and start supporting younger people, women, African Americans, gays and especially Latinos. Trying to prevent these people from voting isn't going to work (as shown by all the state courts who have shut such efforts down, or are in the process of doing so). And the amount of money they can throw around won't matter if they cant get more than 1/3 of the country to vote for them. As the years roll on even their solid red states will begin to switch. We've already started seeing this with states like Virginia, Illinois and others who were very red until the last election.

It seems like a sub-category for talks, but I could see it's possible benefit.

On another note, we need a Latino channel.

I was just thinking to myself the other day, why North American culture has never really allowed asian women to become superstar singers, like whites, blacks, latino... Hawaiian/Filipino (Nicole Scherzinger)etc...

Then I see this video, and I'm relieved...

We need a *latino channel.

Systemic racism applies to different cultures in different ways, places, circumstances, and extents. To suggest that the same solutions apply to the racism that is leveled against all cultures, races,and minorities is simply a different kind of bigotry, but bigotry all the same.>> ^Velocity5:

>> ^Trancecoach:
It's a question of systemic racism and in equality

Surely that would apply to Latinos as well? If not, why not?

>> ^Trancecoach:

It's a question of systemic racism and in equality


Surely that would apply to Latinos as well? If not, why not?

>> ^Trancecoach:

racism is the cause, not the effect.>> ^EMPIRE:
so...many...huh......racial...stereotypes.... must..huh......resist... urge... to.... make....racist...... joke.



Hmm... but Latinos are subject to racism (even codified into law, such as in Arizona), have greater linguistic challenges as ESL speakers, and haven't yet closed the US gaps in academic performance, but you never see Latino flash mob robberies, and the average Latino crime rate is actually (contrary to stereotypes) almost as low as the mainstream US crime rate.

At some point it becomes useful to talk about cultural differences and personal accountability, and how we can help kids get out of self-destructive cultures and improve their lives.

>> ^jqpublick:

Being a Canadian, I stand 100% behind her. We don't know for sure who made these calls (choke, cough cough, hack hack) but when we do find out (at least one riding is now going to have a re-election due to these calls) and when enough of the affected ridings get their fair shots at casting their votes, I for one hope the guilty parties go to jail for a long long time.
I live in one of the ridings that got these calls, and both my roommate and I received calls telling us to go to another polling station. I called Elections Canada and was informed that they do not make phone calls but that they had received an unusual number of complaints.


This happens every election cycle here in the US, though predominantly to the young, the poor and the minorities. There are over 120 new laws on the books here in the States restricting the voting rights of those folks, sending out mail saying you have to vote on x day. It happens every election year in this country and it's only going to get worse for one reason... The republican voting block is shrinking. Younger people, blacks, and especially Latinos, these groups are growing rapidly and vote democrat predominantly, so instead of trying to actually get these groups on board by supporting them, republicans do their best to restrict their ability to vote. It's why a number of states (mostly southern states) make it so you need a state ID to vote and make it extremely hard to get new IDs, especially in the inner cities. In some states you cant vote with a student ID, but you can with a gun license. Florida has a new state law that makes it illegal for groups to help people register to vote. How preposterous is that? This is all in the name of 'voter fraud'. Funny thing is, in the last several years there have been a total of five.. yes.. five.. cases of this that actually went to court in the entire United States. Whats really funny is that two of them were republicans who held an office. One was a secretary of state! (The person in each state tasked with making sure voting and elections go smoothly in essence.)

I feel bad for Canadians. Their government has essentially been paid off by the oil industry. They are making out like bandits up there and their beautiful country is being torn apart (both physically and socially) because of it.

It's a bold move that may well cost him votes. On this score, Obama has more to fear from 'centrist' white independent voters than African Americans or Latino voters.

Ultimately though, this issue will not drive his election or Romney's. The economy and some foreign issues are too important.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

Sudden 180° turn on a highly contentious issue..?
Say anything. Do anything. To get elected.

It's the American way!


Actually, Obama was pro-same-sex-equality before his presidency.

Biden's unplanned statement on Meet the Press, plus the NC amendment pushed him to make this (also unplanned) statement that the White House said was haphazardly put together, and may actually endanger his standing with some African American and Latino constituents.

@longde

Right, it's worth noting that the range of violence displayed by sub-cultures is the same, but are you saying that the averages are the same as well?

This came up in another thread as well, so let's look at the averages (as opposed to anecdotes).


In the US, people might guess that, per capita, a black person is 50% or 100% more likely to kill a white or latino person than the other way around. But the actual number appears to be much higher at 1200%.

According to the FBI's most recent statistics, where available, twice as many whites/latinos are killed by blacks, numerically, as blacks by whites/latinos in the U.S. In 2010 (where reported), the murder numbers were 447 vs 218. This means, statistically, that a black person is over 100% more likely to kill a white/latino person than the other way around.

To get per capita statistics (murders per race as percentage of population ratio), we take into account the differences sizes of the populations:
• 447 murders / 12.6 of US pop. = 35.5 per capita black on white/latino murders.
• 218 murders / 72.4 of US pop. = 3.0 per capita white/latino on black murders.
That means that an individual member of the black community is 1200% (35.5 / 3) more likely to murder a white/latino person than the other way around.

@longde

A study arguing that jury composition is sometimes unbalanced doesn't excuse us from needing to know whether or not THIS jury was unbalanced. Or we might need to awkwardly explain why a jury like this would be racist against her.

Even if the jury was all White and Latino, it should be curious to us that they'd take the side of a violent African American male with 5 baby mommas. That's who they're supposed to be biased against, not for, particularly when it comes to firearms used for self-defense.

More details are needed, and journalists are only conveying one narrow side.

You get it.

The only disagreement I have is that darker skinned europeans and latinos are still a rung above black people, with some white skin privilege.>> ^legacy0100:

^I think Zimmerman's identification does have some significance in this story because it can be interpreted differently in two different contexts.
1. If Zimmerman is comes from a 'white' (cultural) background, this story may be seen not only as one man's racism but also a symbol of empowered majority's oppression of the minority in US society, which is what everyone initially thought at first and the reason why the word 'white' was repeated over and over in the media.
2. If Zimmerman comes from a 'Hispanic' (cultural) background, this story is about a racist man hating on black people, but NOT as empowered majority suppressing the minority. So the story only includes a racist asshole killing an innocent black kid. Even though Hispanics are light skinned, they do not represent empowered majority in the United States. Many cleaning ladies and construction workers you see are light skinned Ecuadorians and Mexicans, and same goes for Russians and east Europeans who often work in bars, night clubs, and restaurants as waiters/waitresses.
Both contexts does not change the fact that Zimmerman is racist, that much is concrete. But it's what he represents that adds meanings to this ugly situation. Americans recognize that there is an invisible class society we have in our society, and would love to find a story that they can point to and claim it as proof. That may have been the case for Zimmerman/Martin murder case had Zimmerman been from an empowered majority group. I think the need to have evidence to prove the existence racial class society here in America is the reason why people are deliberately classifying the word 'white' in a very vague definition.
I would love to know what Zimmerman's occupation / dayjob was before the incident. This could give us an insight to whether he was being racist out of empowered majority or as just one racist a-hole.