Race Relations Browns vs. Blacks

By ALEX PRUD''HOMME

Bitter divisions are breaking out between the nation's two largest minorities. Once solidly united in the drive for equality, blacks and Hispanics are now often at odds over such issues as jobs, immigration and political empowerment. At the root of the quarrels is a seismic demographic change: early in the next century, Hispanics will outnumber African Americans for the first time.

Though the differences were long submerged, they burst into the open last year just before the annual awards dinner of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Washington. Instead of easy talk between old friends, an angry argument erupted. Contending that immigration laws discriminate against Latino workers, Hispanics asked the group to support repeal of the legislation. At first blacks refused, charging that Latino immigrants take jobs away from poor blacks. Furious, Hispanics threatened to storm out in protest. Only eleventh- hour diplomacy by Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, coaxed the Latinos back to the table.

As their numbers have grown, Hispanics have become more strident in their demands for a larger slice of the economic and political pie. Blacks, long accustomed to being the senior partner in the minority coalition, fear that those gains will come at their expense. Meanwhile, demagogues on both sides have pitted black against brown in a bid for short-term political advantage. Says Arthur Fletcher, chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: "On a scale of 1 to 10, I would put Latino-black relations on the negative side of 5."

Increasingly, these long-simmering tensions are flaring into violence, especially in cities where one of the groups has a monopoly on political power. Last May, Hispanics in black-controlled Washington went on a two-day rampage after a Latino man was wounded by a black police officer. In Cuban- dominated Miami four weeks ago, blacks briefly rioted following the overturn of the conviction of a Hispanic police officer for killing two black motorcyclists. It was the sixth such disturbance in 10 years.

Underlying the disputes is a growing divergence of the interests of the two groups, reinforced by mutual suspicion. Black and Hispanic leaders, says Alejandro Portes, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University, "see everything as a zero-sum game. If blacks get something, Latinos lose something, and vice versa." Many African Americans believe that Latinos are benefiting from civil rights victories won by blacks with little help from Hispanics. Says Fletcher: "During the height of the civil rights movement, Hispanics were conspicuous by their absence. They kept asking, 'What about us?' But rather than joining us in fighting the system, Hispanics were fighting us for the crumbs. And that in large part is still what's going on."

For their part, some Hispanics complain that blacks are unwilling to treat them as equals in the fight for equal rights. "We sometimes have assumed that because blacks have fought civil rights battles, they are more sensitive to our struggle," says Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza, a federation of 140 Hispanic organizations. "That's not always the case. Blacks say to us, 'You're whiter than us. You're immigrants, and we've seen people like you get ahead of us. So we're going to be very suspicious of you." The major points of contention:

IMMIGRATION. In Miami the roots of Latino-black antipathy date back to the arrival of thousands of refugees from Castro's Cuba during the 1960s. Many of the newcomers benefited from U.S. government programs that provided $1 billion worth of refugee-assistance payments and small-business loans. Even worse, the immigrants soon began taking most of the menial jobs in the tourist-hotel industry, the city's largest source of employment.

/ Relations have frayed even more because of U.S. immigration policy. Washington's hostility to Castro's regime means that nearly all Cuban immigrants are treated as political refugees and allowed to remain in the U.S. But almost all the would-be immigrants from Haiti are classified as economic refugees and sent back to their homeland. The disparity in treatment was vividly illustrated in early July, when a Coast Guard cutter intercepted a fishing boat carrying 161 Haitians and two Cubans they had plucked from a raft in the Caribbean. Both Cubans were permitted to stay in the U.S. All but nine of the Haitians were sent home.

POLITICS. Although black and Hispanic voters have often united behind candidates from one group or the other, attempts to weld long-lasting political coalitions in most large cities have been difficult to sustain. A case in point: the Latino-black alliance that helped elect Harold Washington as Chicago's first black mayor in 1983. Nearly 7 out of 10 Hispanics voted for Washington and gained a voice in local politics they had never had before. Acknowledging the importance of the Hispanic vote, Washington appointed Latinos to several key positions.

But cracks appeared in the coalition after it became known that blacks were being hired for patronage jobs at a much higher rate than Hispanics. When Washington suddenly died in 1987 just a few months into his second term, a succession battle split the city. Two years later, 75% of Hispanics deserted the black candidate, city alderman Timothy Evans, and cast their ballots for the winner, Richard M. Daley, son of the late Chicago boss. Explains alderman Luis Gutierrez: "Rich Daley sent a message -- 'I'll build a coalition with Hispanics, and my government will respond to you."

JOBS. Many blacks fear that Hispanic immigrants, who are often willing to work for less than the legal minimum wage, are supplanting them in even the lowliest positions. "Young black males stand on the street corner every day," says James H. Johnson, director of UCLA'S Center for the Study of Urban Poverty. "Hispanic males stand on the street corner too. But somebody comes by and takes them to work. Nobody picks up black males but the police. Blacks look at Hispanics as the problem."

Hispanics say that blacks resist any attempts to increase Latino employment. In Los Angeles County, for example, blacks, who make up 10% of the population, hold 30% of the county jobs. Hispanics, who constitute 33% of the population, ! hold only 18% of the jobs. "Blacks think we want to take jobs away from them, so they're fighting us tooth and nail," says Raul Nunez, president of the Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Association. "They are doing the same thing to us that whites did to them."

What leaders in both camps fear most is that some white politicians will try to exploit their divisions by playing off the two groups against each other. Before George Bush selected black Appeals Court Judge Clarence Thomas to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Thurgood Marshall, the White House let it be known that a Hispanic jurist, Emilio Garza, was also being considered. Some Latinos believe that the information was leaked mainly to lure Hispanics to the Republican banner.

Some Hispanics and blacks are working to heal the rift between them. Last July, African-American and Latino scholars and politicians met at Harvard University to air their grievances. "We are seeing that it is time for society to pay attention to Hispanics' much delayed political maturation," says Christopher Edley, a black Harvard Law School professor. "The jury is still out on how the black community will respond: Will we welcome the growing strength of a longtime ally, or will we respond by feeling threatened or displaced?"

Events in Los Angeles could provide a model for how the two groups can work together. Last year Hispanic activists won a major victory when a federal judge ruled that the Los Angeles County board of supervisors had gerrymandered election districts to prevent Latino candidates from winning a seat on the powerful governing body, and ordered the lines to be redrawn. The case had been brought under the Voting Rights Act, one of the major fruits of the black civil rights struggle, and it resulted in the election last February of Gloria Molina, the first Hispanic supervisor since 1875.

From the start, lawyers for the Hispanic plaintiffs consulted with blacks to ensure that their voting strength was not diluted by the redistricting. "We shared our plans with them, they shared their plans with us, and we came up with a plan that didn't step on anybody's toes," says Richard P. Fajardo, an attorney for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

If current trends in immigration and birth rates continue, minorities will outnumber white Americans midway through the 21st century. Under those circumstances, blacks and Hispanics have no choice but to collaborate. They have far more to gain from pooling their strengths than from bickering with each other.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: TIME Chart

CAPTION: In 20 years Hispanics will be the largest minority group

With reporting by Ricardo Chavira/Washington, Sylvester Monroe/Los Angeles and Richard Woodbury/Houston