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In Washington, DC, I believe that the local government has been performing necessary outreach to the Latino population.
When I was in high school, among the students there was little social integration. The black students were in the majority, and most of us largely ignored the small, but growing Latino population.
There were a few Latinos who integrated well with the overall population...keeping true to their roots but also having black friends. Many of the Latinos in my high school were first or second generation americans, so the ones who mastered the language were the ones who could reap the same benefits as the black students.
But as I went back to volunteer over the years, I noticed that there was resentment and outright racism toward the Latino students from the black teachers! The majority of the teachers at this particular school were just getting their start in education during the end of the civil rights movement -- right now they are in their late fifties, i would say. anyway, i would feel bad for the students because hell, if you can't feel equal in the classroom because the teacher is more racist than the student, what do you do?
luckily, there are support systems set up in washington for latino communities. i know that the williams administration has done a lot of outreach to all of washington's minority communities. there are also many non-profit agencies for Latino youth.
anyway, my point is that in a majority black city, we washingtonians should be mindful of not becoming the oppressor, for here latinos wield very little political power.
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