Preface

We began thinking about and initially working on the ideas and evidence in our analysis of black-Latino relations in the United States some time around 2001 (which is more than a decade before it is being published), to the best of our recollection. Our personal lives and situations changed in a host of complex ways. And countless professional responsibilities, developments, commitments (including other research projects) intervened, affecting, and often disrupting and delaying, our ability to focus on this project and give the concentrated periods of time required to move ahead with analysis, writing, and revision, and all their associated complications. In short, “life happens.” At the same time, various political events in American society arose during the decade of 2000–10 that were and are directly relevant to our concerns. To name but a very few of the many that could be noted, the growth and visibility of the Latino population, perhaps punctuated in 2003 with the statement (from the U.S. Census Bureau) that the Latino population had surpassed the black population in size; the clamor and controversies over (illegal) immigration; and the emergence and election of Barack Obama. These and other events underscore and have heightened the salience of the issues we address in this book.

The increased significance of the topic is also reflected in the rather vast and varied body of research on black-Latino relations that proliferated over this time (some part of that research is summarized and reviewed in Chapter 2). We acknowledge here, and emphasize several times later, our appreciation of the previous work on the topic; it is informative and consequential, and we take it most seriously.