Latio Americans Protest Obama saying he’s in line with Fidel Castro.

Well it looks like all that the Super Tuesday battle for the Democratic nomination was extend the contest. Senator Barack Obama won the states he had to as did Sen. Clinton. She won marginal surprises in Massachusetts where she overcome Obama endorsements from Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and in California, a hotly contested state with lots of delegates.

On the flip side, Obama stole away “market share” (if you will) in states where Clinton had once held huge delegate leads. So at the end of the night the “Compu-Box” stats showed Clinton leading the delegate count 845 to Obama’s 765. The uncommitted tally is 75.

However, the particular trend of interest to me is why Obama isn’t doing well with Latinos (and Asians) but has excelled of course with Blacks and increasingly with whites. As a Black-Dominican myself, this disparity makes me to scratch my head. I believe the answer to this puzzling trend, however is simple and very familiar…Racism. I’m not talking about the strain of racism that inspired the civil rights era, burned crosses in the South and fueled the KKK. I’m talking about the Racism of Telemundo.

In Hispanic culture particularly in Latin America, the level of melanin in your skin is the prevailing determinant of your class hierarchy. That extends to immigrants here in this country as well. If you watch Telemundo or Univision the actors in the novellas (soap operas), news anchors and game show hosts are all very fair skin and to the observing American would appear…white. This is the image that is glorified by Latinos. Here in New York there is practically a civil war between Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. The prevailing complaint of the aformentioned is that us Dominicans are “dirty” country folks of a less civilized culture because our skin traditionally is darker. In actuality that more so has to do Darwin and the country’s proximity to the equator but whose keeping count.

This conflict is cultural and has spilled into mainstream society. In American culture, Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians are all grouped together as “Minorities.” For some recently migrated Latinos this is a revolting concept. They feel no relation to the African Americans in this country. Those ignorant few see them as savages and while they don’t mind their children marrying a “white” American, dating African Americans classifies as interactial and very unacceptable.

They would rather relate to the majority white population and can’t understand why their native tongue not the color of their skin determines their status in this country. As a result they’re using their voice at the polls to demonstrate their displeasure. To some Latinos, Obama is of a lower class than them because of his skin gradient so how could he be the appropriate choice to lead them in this time of great peril. Advantage Hillary! And if Obama should win, the Rebublican nominee (our boy) McCain will benefit.