Cracks in the Rainbow: Group Commonality as a Basis for Latino and African-American Political Coalitions

• Published date: 01 June 2003
• Date: 01 June 2003
• Author: Karen M. Kaufmann
• DOI: 10.1177/106591290305600208
• Subject Matter: Articles

There is power in numbers, and the increasing pro-

portion of ethnic and racial minorities in the United

States could represent significant consequences for its

electoral politics. Urban settings have long been seen as the

primary locus of minority power and minority politics,

however election outcomes in large states such as Texas,

California, Florida, Illinois, and New York now also fre-

quently hinge on the political decisions of their growing

non-white communities. And given the size and importance

of these states to the electoral college, minority voters are

also salient to presidential candidates. We are in an era of

electoral politics where minority voters will not only be

increasingly more prevalent, but undoubtedly more conse-

quential as well.

In spite of these growing numbers, political alliances are

still essential for the full force of the minority vote to be felt

at the ballot box. And yet notwithstanding the apparently

rational incentives for minority coalition building, there is

little evidence of formal or even informal coalitions between

the nation’s two largest minority groups, African-Americans

and Latinos (Meier and Stewart 1991; Rich 1996). The

focus of this article is on mass attitudes and the propensity

of African -Americans and Latin os to build elec toral

alliances. The theoretical premise of this work is that per-

ceived commonality between blacks and Latinos is integral

to constructing political associations as the mass level.

Recent public opinion data point to an asymmetry in the

affinity that African-Americans and Latinos have for one

another; blacks see much greater levels of intergroup com-

monality than do Latinos (Kaufmann 2003). Understanding

the factors that lead to this asymmetry motivates this

research. In essence, this article looks at two central ques-

tions: (1) What factors correspond to higher levels of Latino

affinity for African-Americans? (2) How much future poten-

tial is there for Latino participation in minority oriented

political alliances?

THE BASIS FOR MINORITY COALITIONS

F rom a theoret ical basis, the question of whether or not

Latinos and African-American s will join political forces has

often been approached from the standpoint of shared inter-

ests vers us interg r oup competition (Meier and Stewart

1991;McClain and Karnig 1990; McClain and Ta u b e r

1998; Kaufmann 2003). As many students of minority pol-

itics aptly suggest, Latinos and African-Americans share

similar objective circumstances in the United States. Both

a re economically disadvantaged relative to whites; both

experience substantial discrimination in housing, educa-

tion, and employment; and both advocate for enlarging the

social welfare state. In spite of these shared interests, com-

petition over jobs, educational re s o u rces, housing, an d

political power often place blacks and Latinos in conflict

against one anot her, and this conflict can act as a powerf u l

b a r rier to political alliance (Garcia and de La Garza 1977;

H e n ry 1980; Johnson and Oliver, 1989; Waldinger 1996;

Borjas 1999).

More telling, perhaps, than this theoretical debate, is the

empirical observation that there are few, if any, real exam-

ples of strong political coalitions between blacks and Lati-

nos, while there are many examples of political conflict

199

Cracks in the Rainbow:

Group Commonality as a Basis for

Latino and African-American Political Coalitions

KAREN M. KAUFMANN, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT COLLEGE PARK

The focus of this article is on mass attitudes and the propensity of blacks and Latinos to build electoral coali-

tions. The theoretical argument is that perceived commonality between Latinos and African-Americans is

essential to constructing mass political alliances. Using recent public opinion data, this research explores the

levels of perceived commonality between blacks and Latinos and in particular studies the process by which

Latinos come to feel close to African-Americans. This article tests four main hypotheses: pan-Latino affinity,

acculturation, perceived discrimination, and racial identity. Findings suggest that pan-Latino affinity is a robust

predictor of Latino/black commonality, but that long-term Latino political acculturation, in its current form, is

unlikely to result in particularly high levels of closeness to blacks. The conclusion of the article points to the

important role that Latino leadership and political organizations play in promoting strong pan-ethnic identi-

ties and suggests that the prospects for future coalitions between African-Americans and Latinos rest, in part,

on the development of these more inclusive Latino orientations.

NOTE: An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meet-

ing of the American Political Science Association, Washington

D.C. 2000. I am particularly indebted to Richard Morin of the

Washington Post, for providing me with the data for this project. I

am also grateful to Jim Gimpel, Irwin Morris, Ric Uslaner, and sev-

eral anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.

Political Research Quarterly,Vol. 56, No. 2 (June 2003): pp. 199-210