Hispanics in Massachussets forgot they weren't supposed to vote for a black candidate

Today a pollster on Hillary's payroll told the Newyorker magazine, "But he was also frank about the fact that the Clintons, long beloved in the black community, are now dependent on a less edifying political dynamic: “The Hispanic voter—and I want to say this very carefully—has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates.”

Some have hyped this unfounded comment.

If Hispanic voters are this racist, it looks like in 2006, Massachussets Latinos didn't get the memo.

Governor Deval Patrick received support of 87% of Hispanic voters. Want to guess his support among whites and blacks?
From a Survey USA poll conducted 1 month and a half before the Governor elections in Massachusetts.

White
Patrick(D): 63%
Healy (R): 26%

Blacks
Patrick (D): 74%
Healy (R): 26%

Hispanics
Patrick (D): 87%
Healy (R): 7%


On a city level (and a huge city that is--NYC), data shows that a huge Hispanic majority backed mayor Dinkins over white Rudolph Giuliani. Twice. Data from a city with 8 million people wasn't enough, because see, it's not a general election. Well, the Hillary pollster who claimed that Hispanics are unlikely to support a black candidate could not have been talking about a General Election, since there have been no major black candidates in our history. Most importantly, it would make no sense if this racist phenomenon happened in a national level, and not at a state and local level.

Here's a rule of thumb you should remember: Hispanics, except for Castro-hating Cubans from Florida, love the Democratic Party. No matter the race of their candidate.

Another excuse from the Hispanics-are-racist crowd is that the racism thing is only true when both candidates are Democrats.
That's also nonsensical, since the major proof presented here is that Latinos in Latin America are mean to black people. I assume they don't go around asking "Hello black person, Can you tell me if you are a conservative or a liberal before I start being mean to you"?

There is a problem with that excuse:

1) The Hillary pollster was not talking about Dem. vs. Dem
2)Hispanics in Latin America hate blacks, in your opinion, so don't give me that "well-it-only-works-for-two-Democrats" theory.
Or you could find Democraphic data regarding black Dem. vs. White dem. I won't hold my breath.

Obama's supporters should rest assured that if Hispanics believe he's the best candidate, they will pick him.

"Latinos" are divided into many widely diverse subgroups. Puerto Ricans are OVERWHELMINGLY Democrats, and the majority of Latinos, including here where I live in MA, are Puerto Rican. This is true of NYC, albeit to a decreasing extent over time.

But the majority of Latinos in the US are Mexicano. This is especially true in the crucial region including Nevada, CA, Arizona, CO, etc, and the voting patterns with Mexicanos are different from Puerto Ricans.

I am not predicting that Obama will not gain the support of most Mexicano voters in the primary campaign; indeed I think it is going to be quite a battle. But just remember that what you are observing about "Latinos" in NYC and MA is NOT the same as, or readily generalizeable to CA, CO or NV.

Katzenkavelier has posted some very insightful posts starting to explore this important political issue. Sorry I don't have the links at my fingertips. Maybe someone could post them in response

Very true. I am Puerto Rican. I used to subscribe to some Latino geared magazines and dropped the subscriptions because so much of what was in them was so foreign to me. LOL.

Hispanics vary so widely in cultural habits. And even within each group there is so much variety and so many differences. I have an uncle who is a staunch Republican. My parents also cancelled each other out when voting. My Mom was a Democrat. My dad was and is Republican.

Then you have the more upper class Hispanics, the lower and middle class, blue collar, professional, religious, non religious, older and younger generations and it goes on and on. This is why I always just kind of roll my eyes whenever I see a thread about how Hispanics are supposed to do this or react to that and treated as one monolithic voting block. Just not true.

Kick!