But I also don’t think it’s good to generalize, because a) Latinos aren’t a monolith, b) many Latinos are Black and acknowledge their Blackness, and c) its some really complicated shit that isn’t well served by sweeping generalizations disconnected from some deeper analysis of what’s at play. Like, my family - there’s bias there, but there’s also way more kinship and commonality with Black people and Black culture than with white folks. People in my family who have married people who aren’t Latinos have married more Black folks than white folks by far. It’s never cut and dry, and we do ourselves a major disservice by following the media in making it seem like it is.

I also don’t think you can generalize Asian American attitudes around race and definitely not label all Asians as sellouts, for the same reasons. Me, I’d be really hesitant of making that sort of blanket judgment about any group of people of color that I’m not myself a part of, since we’ve all got our own biases and internalized racism against people of other ethnicities.

We are sellouts. On my college campus - the average asian chick would fall over themzselves trying to get with the wackest white boy you can imagine- Asians are sellouts - they want to be white and want white acceptance.

Most Latin people - especialy those with African bl0od - Dominicans, Puerto Ricans still have the “pello malo” nonsense going on in our culture. We are sellouts. When are we going to learn that our best hope for advancement in this society lies with hitching our wagon to blacks. They are the least racist towards us and the most likely to really accept us. With whites we can only expect crumbs…i getting tired of this junk.

Pleasure to find your site (I think I found it through the NYTimes blogs, or maybe it was Brian Lehrer’s WNYC page…). As for “coquito,” it’s been an online handle for awhile now. It’s meant as kind of a double reference: to the coqui, which I’m sure I don’t have to explain my irrational love for, and to the drink. I’m the one that makes the coquito in my family. Put up a recipe post around Christmas time and we can swap. Thanks again for the blogging.

-c.

@FreshEncounter: Glad you found the blog! (Give my thanks to your girl.) Happy 2008 to you to, and SI SE PUEDE!

Thing is, though, why would the familiarity factor affect Latino voting more than the voting of other ethnic groups?

@Erica: Yay for our congressional district, and for Jews bucking the trend of Obama suspicion. I read a really interesting article the other day from Mother Jones entitled Obama’s Israel Shuffle” that talks about just that suspicion (of him being anti-Israel and thus “bad for Jews.”) I was looking around to find out more about his stance on Palestine and Israel and was disappointed to see him taking such a pro-Israel stance, so it’s funny to then read that he takes flack for not being pro-Israel enough! But after reading that article it does seem like if he wasn’t so pro-Israel, he’d be screwed. Stuff like that makes me wonder whether he (and other candidates) are really pushing viewpoints that they believe in, or if they’re simply playing the game that’ll get them elected. I’m inclined to believe that it’s more the latter than the former.

Nice Obama graphics and t-shirts, by the way. I’ll definitely print some out or pick some out if New Yorkers get to vote for him again come November (let’s cross our fingers!)

Happy 2008.

YES WE CAN!!!