The immigration issue is not only a contentious
one for Puerto Ricans. It has also divided the
African-American community, with one part of the
leadership clearly suspicious of the merits of pro-
moting immigrant rights. Sensitive about high
unemployment among African Americans, these
leaders see Latino immigrants as unwelcome com-
petition for scarce jobs.
When a 1990 Congressional Accounting Office
study found “a pattern of widespread discrimination
against Latino and Asian immigrants” in the wake of
the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986,
the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) refused to join the calls of
Latino civil rights organizations for repeal of the law.
As a result, at the 1990 annual awards dinner of the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Latino orga-
nizations threatened to pull out of the conference.
Only eleventh-hour diplomacy by then NAACP
President Benjamin Hooks coaxed Latinos back to
the table.
Relations between Latinos and African Americans
were strained further when NAACP state chairper-
son Hazel Dukes expressed her frustration on public
radio in September, 1990 that jobs that should be
going to African Americans were being given to
waiters “who can’t speak English” and “who take
home all the excess food.” She compounded the
problem when she later explained to a local paper
that she was talking about “Ecuadorians, who are
not Latinos.” The Latino outrage prompted the New
York newspaper El Diario-La Prensa to lead with a
front-page map of Latin America pointing out to
Dukes exactly where Ecuador is located.
Even progressive African-American leaders such as
the Rev. Calvin Butts of Abyssinia Baptist Church in
Harlem have not been immune to anti-immigrant
bias. In 1991, on WABC’s Latino interest show,
“Tiempo,” the Reverend called for the borders of
New York City to be closed because the city did not
have enough resources to serve the growing immi-
grant communities. The statement brought immedi-
ate chastisement from Latino and Caribbean immi-
grant groups.
Many in the U.S. political establishment encour-
age this ethnic infighting, which diverts attention
from the larger economic disparities from which
these elites benefit. Certain African-American and
Latino middle-class leaders also have fomented eth-
nic rivalries as a tool to further their own political
ambitions in their respective communities.
What is perhaps most tragic about African-
American doubts about immigration is that the
majority of recent immigrants to the United States
are from the African diaspora. According to the
findings of the Task Force on New Americans,
between 1980 and 1988, 53% of immigrants to the
United States were of African descent. The short-
sightedness of some African-American leaders has
resulted in their attacking people who form part of
their natural political constituency.
Since these regrettable incidents, numerous dia-
logues have taken place between Latinos-particu-
larly Latino immigrants-and representatives of the
African-American community. These exchanges will
hopefully lead to greater unity among all people of
color in the face of right-wing policies that harm
African Americans and Latino immigrants alike.
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