Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Navarrette: In New New Orleans It's a Black vs. Brown Thing


In college, my African-American friends and I used to call it “the black-brown thing.” It's the uneasy tension – and occasional conflict – between the nation's largest minority and the group that formerly held the title.

In the 1990s, the phenomenon was most prevalent in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami – large urban centers where significant numbers of African-Americans and Latinos lived side by side.

Today, ground zero is New Orleans, where a lot of African-Americans are no longer sure they want to live and where a lot more Latinos have gone to find work.

Click here for the rest of Ruben Navarrette's column.