Black-Latino Relations in U.S. National Politics

Rodney E. Hero is Professor of Political Science and the Haas Chair in Diversity and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Racial Diversity and Social Capital: Equality and Community in America (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Faces of Inequality: Social Diversity in American Politics (2000) and Latinos and the U.S. Political System: Two-Tiered Pluralism (1992), winner of the American Political Science Association's 1993 Ralph J. Bunch award. He is co-author of Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior, and Policy Preferences (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Robert R. Preuhs is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Metropolitan State College of Denver. His research focuses on representation, state politics, policy and racial/ethnic politics. His research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Politics.

• Preface; Introduction; 1. What previous research tells us about Black–Latino relations; 2. Black–Latino relations in congressional testimony and the legal arena; 3. Salience and congruence in policy positions: Black–Latino advocacy groups and congressional scorecards; 4. Black–Latino relations in the U.S. House of Representatives; 5. The role of group interests and ideology in cross-group support; 6. Further explorations of Black–Latino relations and policies in natural politics; 7. Conclusion.

'In this path-breaking book, Rodney Hero and Robert Preuhs bring to the fore a long-neglected dimension of American politics - the relationship between African-American and Latino elites in national-level politics. Studies of intergroup behavior at the local and state levels often report significant conflict between blacks and Latinos. In contrast, looking at several forms of evidence, Hero and Preuhs find little such intergroup conflict at the national level. All students of American politics will want to read [this book], both for what it tells us about the evolving relations between these two increasingly powerful groups in American national politics and for its critical role in reminding us that the American federal system is capable of both dividing and uniting us.' Lawrence C. Dodd, University of Florida