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Decades of immigration from Latin America have reshaped the social landscape of the
United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Latinos now constitute 13.4 percent of the
nation’s population, making them the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the country.
Nowhere are these changes more visible than in America’s major metropolitan areas, where the
Latino population remains largely concentrated (Guzman 2001). And perhaps no community is
more acutely aware of these changes than African Americans, who are more likely to share
neighborhoods with Latinos than any other racial or ethnic group (Glaeser and Vigdor 2001;
Logan 2001). After generations in which most African Americans lived in racial isolation, the
movement of Latinos into traditionally black communities is transforming neighborhoods where
African Americans were once the dominant social and political force (Camarillo 2004; Mohl
2003). Despite early optimism that the influx of new minority groups into urban centers would
improve the prospects for coalition (e.g., Browning, Marshall, and Tabb 1984), black-Latino
relations have tended toward conflict (Falcon 1988; Meier and Stewart 1991; Oliver and Johnson
1984; Vaca 2004). Reports from numerous cities describe the feelings of distrust and hostility
that prevail among African Americans, preventing them from making common cause with
Latinos (Bobo and Massagli 2001; Bobo et al. 1994; Dyer, Vedlitz, and Worchel 1989; Mindiola,
Neimann, and Rodriguez 2002; but see Cummings and Lambert 1997).
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For black political
elites, increasingly aware of the urgent need for cooperation across racial and ethnic lines if
African Americans are to advance their policy interests, the trend is disturbing: anti-Latino
sentiment among the black mass public may undermine elite efforts to build black-Latino
alliances, putting at risk the group’s future political and economic status.
Scholars have yet to reach consensus on the source of black hostility toward Latinos.
However, most accounts of the conflict identify the competition over scarce resources as a
Convention