The black-brown divide

I would say no, at least not anywhere it is going to make a difference. I'm going from memory, but I believe Obama did fine with Hispanics in Arizona. Where there seems to be an issue is where you have black and hispanic integrated populations. California and Texas immediately come to mind, but I don't think anyone believes that either of those will be flipped. New Mexico and Colorado look to be swing states this year, and hispanics could play a role in both those States. I think McCain will get the former and Obama will get the latter. The last state with a decent Hispanic influence would be Florida. I think McCain has that one in the bag against Obama, because the Cuban, Jewish, and elderly votes will all probably swing to McCain.

I don't understand the immigration issue. I've seen polls that show at least one third of Hispanics are against illegal immigration, and the illegals can't vote. You can't lose voters who can't vote!

I don't think this is just about immigration. There is a deep racism within the Hispanic community. NPR just had a whole segment on it and it certainly matches my experience living in Latin America. Most of those in power in Latin America are white Hispanics with Black Latinos and Natives at the bottom of the power structure, much like America for a very long part of her history.
Very sad. Though, the racism tends to fade by 3rd generation immigrants become Americanized.

One of the reasons I support Barack Obama, ironically, is that his MULTIRACIAL background personally, and EXPERIENCE (having lived his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii, two avowedly multiracial places) may give him an advantage in at least starting to loosen this increasingly Gordian knot.

I've always been honest that African-Americans as well as whites share resentments against Latinos, legal and illegal, stirred up in this talk radio/Minuteman raging brushfire by the ultra-right. Little surprise, human nature being what it is, that some Latinos would be cruel/prejudiced in response.

And that's not even getting into the dicey racial politics of the Asian-American community, where affirmative action might better be called negative action.

I dated an Asian woman a couple of years ago, and her ultra-traditionalist mother was very complimentary towards me when I met her for the first time. I was quite surprised (given my well-known heterodoxical ways), but of course pleasantly so.

"R.," I said to my then-girlfriend, "wouldn't your mother rather have you date a fellow Asian?"

"Definitely not unless he was (in my specific ethnic group)," she said. "And even then, she'd rather have me date someone white. IT'S A STEP UP."

That floored me. So my next question was, "OK, so what if I was African-American?"

"Oh, I'd be disowned," she replied sadly yet nonchalantly.

Oops, by "her in-laws" I meant "my inlaws" - her parents.

Racism is an ugly thing, regardless of how it is learned. No one should be surprised that immigrants or people outside the U.S. adopt the racist beliefs of the dominant U.S. culture. And no one should be surprised that oppressed groups--forced to battle over limited resources--are going to be in conflict and not necessarily have affinity for each other.

It's going to be a fun election.

I won't even begin to tell you stories from my husband's time in Miami. Let's just say that having people refuse to speak to him in English and throwing change and merchandise towards him in stores was pretty run of the mill.

Never heard of the change being thrown at someone part, but when I lived in south Florida in the mid-1990s, it wasn't uncommon for Anglos, even, to be in situations in which they would be spoken to in Spanish, defiantly, even though the person serving them in the bank, restaurant, wherever, made it clear he or she spoke English. But wouldn't. It was laying down a marker, and it was really quite something.

Americans face it and deal with it better than most.

Oh, I completely agree. But racism is different in each country. The U.S is a multicultural success unmatched anywhere in the world (with maybe the exception of Canada). Still, we aren't post-racist. The way Black people are treated in this country is a uniquely U.S. experience and, as the dominant cultural powerhouse, those views get transmitted.

It's what the black community gets for 75 years of being voting cattle for the liberal Democrats.

Huh? The greatest wave of illegal immigration in our history began in 2000, with the ascendancy of a Republican president and a GOP Congress, aided and abetted by religious conservatives being "voting cattle" for the Republicans.

Don't hold your breath. Superior candidates of other races chosen instead of him are responsible for marooning Rod where he is now in life, so his payback is far from finished.

What's funny is that immigration wasn't an issue till the war in Iraq went South. Bush never campaigned on securing our borders (or ports) in 00/04.
Republicans continually look for scapegoats/distractions when their own policies go awry. I'd figure on them pulling out gays, Mexicans, public school teachers, ACLU members, feminists, etc. when the campaign starts going poorly for the GOP this summer.
As far as blacks vs. latinos, I can only speak for the Denver Metro area:

I'm a white who lives in a predominately black area and Latinos are moving in the neighborhoods. It seems to me that with the anti-immigrant frevor Latinos could do just as well in a black neighborhood as a mixed or a white one. And Latinos are moving into the old Stapleton airport area where I live.
Black residents don't seem to have any more hang-ups than whites in my view.
I've been a public school teacher most of the decade in Denver Public Schools. Latinos seem to emulate the hip-hop culture quite well. I've never dealt with an issue as a MS & Elementary teacher over some Latino - Black issue.
In fact, I think what the baby-boomers don't get is that hip-hop culture (a segement of African American youth culture) is the most popular thing around (even for many white suburban kids).
Maybe it's gonna be the folks after GenXers (like myself) who really are color-blind.

I'm tired of hearing about wars between races and ethnic groups. Let's instead talk about the difference between the haves and have-nots. Class disparities in the States are only making existing group tensions worse.

The bottom line is that latinos are harder workers, more patriotic and more intellectual than blacks. Blacks by & large do hardly nothing but whine & complain about how everyone else is responsible for their failure. Where a black will wait for someone to give him a handout, the latino, by hard work and dedication, will make the most out of every opportunity this great country provides.