Facts don't back black, brown divide in Texas
Minority groups have been allies for decades, local activists say
DALLAS -- If Latino voters help keep Sen. Hillary Clinton's primary battle with Sen. Barack Obama alive, will covert racism be to blame, as 82-year-old Latino activist Adelfa Callejo recently claimed?
Two Texans who come at this issue from different backgrounds both argue that Callejo was way off base.
Although highly respected here, Callejo was not only out of step with today's political climate, but with the city's history when she told a local TV reporter: "Obama has the problem that he happens to be black."
"When blacks had the numbers, they didn't do anything to support us," said Callejo, who is a Clinton supporter. "They always used our numbers to fulfill their goals and objectives, but they never really supported us, and there's a lot of hard feelings about that. I don't think we're going to get over it anytime soon."
Had Callejo blamed the so-called black-brown divide on differences between the two groups over immigration policy, or even the natural tensions that exist when two groups are fighting for political empowerment and the spoils that go with it, her assessment might have made some sense.
But like many other urban areas with a large immigrant population, Latinos and African Americans formed loose coalitions around issues of police brutality and electoral politics more than 20 years ago.
No one knows that better than Roy Williams.
The African-American grass-roots activist has been a thorn in the backside of Dallas City Council members since the '60s. Williams is so well-known that our conversation at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore was interrupted several times as patrons -- young, gray-haired, white, black and Latino -- stopped to greet him.
In 1988, Williams, along with Marvin Crenshaw, successfully sued the city under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, claiming that its system for electing representatives was unfair to blacks and Hispanics.
"When the city was trying to settle this issue, an official said we will give you four black districts and forget about the Hispanics," Williams told me. "But we said no. We can't do that. They have a right to their representation as well as we do. We wouldn't allow that. Had we not done that, Latinos would not have the three Hispanic districts that they have today."
Williams, who was born in Longview, Texas (about 125 miles from Dallas), has spent most of his adult years in the city. In the '70s and '80s, blacks and Hispanics often marched together against police brutality," he said.
"At that time there was a rash of Hispanic and black young males getting shot in highly questionable shootings. We broke through that blue wall."
Williams doesn't think Callejo's comments were happenstance.
"This is by design to create fear and separate the Hispanics from the African Americans," said Williams, an Obama supporter.
If that is the case, state Rep. Rafael Anchia is an Obama supporter who doesn't believe the strategy will work.
Anchia is the son of immigrants. He grew up in an immigrant neighborhood and now represents a district that includes several historic black neighborhoods.
"The majority of Latinos were insulted by those comments," he said. "Actually, I don't think Adelfa is a racist. She has worked with the African-American community on important issues to both communities." To the extent there is some tension, that is the "exception and not the rule," Anchia said.
"In fact, if Barack Obama does not win the Latino vote in Texas, it will be a by-product of the Latino community's familiarity with the Clintons rather than, in my view, any underlying tension or racism. I was especially surprised that Adelfa framed it that way," he said.
"In urban areas we have a pretty good history of working together, by virtue of the fact that we have to. We are in closer proximity, especially now that the Latino community is growing," he said.
Callejo's comments brought a swift condemnation from Clinton herself, and the activist hasn't made additional public statements about the matter.
Still, her explosive remarks should serve as a reminder to Obama that when it comes to bridging the racial divide, there's a lot of work ahead.