I plan on devoting some serious attention to this subject in a week or so, from a "Latino" perspective. But here are a couple of thoughts:

Grouping Chicanos, Cubanos, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorenos, etc. because they have "Spanish culture or heritage" makes no more sense than grouping together Quebecois, Cajuns and Haitians because they have "French culture or heritage." And hardly anyone (not even me, although I have mixed Chicano/Mexican and Puerto Rican ancestry) thinks of himself or herself as "Latino" as opposed to part of some smaller group. So the fear shouldn't so much that Latinos are taking over as that non-Latino political leaders will use Blacks' status as the "second largest minority" to ignore them just as they have ignored (for example) Chicano communities for decades.

Latinos are a "political alliance"? LOL! All you need to do to see that isn't true is go to some national Hispanic conference where the Florida contingent tries to get the group to condemn Fidel, or start mocking the leftist tendencies of the southwestern Chicanos. The biggest promoters of the "Hispanics are the largest minority" meme are people whose business is Spanish-language marketing. Second biggest are politicians who have gotten desperate from being told by other politicians that our communities are too small to matter.

One of the big hurdles for Latinos and Asian-Americans is the perception that we are not really Americans (while Blacks are). That's the potential wedge we need to be alert about.

(By the way, good looking new site.)

Thanks for the design props. I still have a few minor tweaks no one but me will notice, but I'm pretty happy with it. Maybe best of all, I can pretty much crank sites like this now.

Now, the serious stuff:

So the fear shouldn't so much that Latinos are taking over as that non-Latino political leaders will use Blacks' status as the "second largest minority" to ignore them just as they have ignored (for example) Chicano communities for decades.

Latinos are a "political alliance"? LOL! All you need to do to see that isn't true is go to some national Hispanic conference where the Florida contingent tries to get the group to condemn Fidel, or start mocking the leftist tendencies of the southwestern Chicanos.

We're not in disagreement here. It's just amusing from my perspective to see folks lump so many ethnicities into a single "minority group" when people would like to disperse the Black communities…which actually is a single ethnicity…based on class issues.

One of the big hurdles for Latinos and Asian-Americans is the perception that we are not really Americans (while Blacks are).

Really?

When you write up this issue, I'd appreciate a ping, okay?

In your experience, do you often get told to "go back where you came from"? If yes, then Luis is incorrect. If not, then that's part of what he's getting at. Latinos and Asian-Americans are often assumed to be immigrants even when their families might have been in the U.S. for generations.

P.S. I've discovered that a white girl can get people to tell her to "go back where you came from" by wearing Muslim veiling. Variations on the idea that my dress and hence myself are not really American are the most common thing I hear.

I've experienced being told to "go back to the trees," if that counts.

Still, I'm the first to admit my own reactions are unusual. I'm never surprised when anoter difference arises.

I don't think this is an "either-or" thing. It's probably more like a spectrum. Latinos may tend to hear certain types of racist remarks more than other types. Blacks may tend to hear the other types of racist remarks more than the first kind. But there's a lot of overlap too and some of it can be shared by people who appear to be culturally rather than racially different.

When people become more open-minded and willing to accept and appreciate differences, then all groups who are visibly different in some way benefit from it. But groups also have different historical experiences in America that affect where their communities are today and solving the problems in these communities depends on addressing the historical experience. A simple diversity campaign won't solve the problems in our inner cities - or on our Indian reservations.

I recently finished reading "The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 to the Civil Rights Era" (reviewed here). One of the author's themes is that racial dynamics in Seattle have been different than they are in the South or in the Northeast because Seattle has had a large Asian population as long as it's had a black population and some of the worst racial violence was against Chinese. So we also have to consider these local variations in devising solutions.

I've been told to get out of the hood and back to the rich white North Dallas, if it is any consolation. Which it isn't. (And I've never livd in North Dallas, or anywhere other than the hood, for that matter. About the time I was able to leave, I decided that I didn't mind it.)

Groupthink is dangerous.