In most major US cities, why do Hispanic Communities have lower turnout than black communities?

[ProgressiveModerate]

This is true in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and you can go down the list for a while. In most cases, these Hispanic communities are at least at face value about equal in terms of economic opportunity and educational attainment and sometimes higher. Yet we often see these large zones of Hispanic precincts where turnout can dip into the 30s, even 20s. Black communities rarely have turnout that falls below 30%.

It's understandable that basically everywhere, white turnout is stronger than minority turnout because white people tend to be economically better off and are more likely to have attended college. Which is why in this question I'm specifically comparing Black and Hispanic communities; no doubt one would expect Hispanic communities to have lower turnout than white communities generally.

Is there a cultural difference between these 2 communities that causes black communities to have higher turnout or am I missing something here?

[Del Tachi]

Citizenship.

[Gracile]

Yet we often see these large zones of Hispanic precincts where turnout can dip into the 30s, even 20s. Black communities rarely have turnout that falls below 30%.

Are you comparing the voting age population or CVAP here? If it's the former, there is a pretty obvious answer to why turnout is so low.

Another factor that isn't related to citizenship is that black communities have historically been proximate to institutions that have encouraged voting since the civil rights movement - specifically black churches, which have taken an active role in black political life by encouraging voter turnout through things like "souls to the polls" and so on. Hispanic communities don't have a comparable institution that has been able to encourage voter turnout across generations due to being a community of relatively recent arrivals to the US (often being the child or grandchild of an immigrant who has never voted).

[MyLifeIsYours]

Citizenship.

Definitely the primarily reason for the lower turnout. Lots Of newcoming immigrants who have not obtain citizenship, leaving them absent from voting.

[ملكة كرينجيتوك]

Another factor that isn't related to citizenship is that black communities have historically been proximate to institutions that have encouraged voting since the civil rights movement - specifically black churches, which have taken an active role in black political life by encouraging voter turnout through things like "souls to the polls" and so on. Hispanic communities don't have a comparable institution that has been able to encourage voter turnout across generations due to being a community of relatively recent arrivals to the US (often being the child or grandchild of an immigrant who has never voted).

It’s definitely an immigrant community/non-ADOS POC thing.

[ottermax]

I think where this is shockingly relevant is in local elections. Several city council seats or assembly seats in Los Angeles, San Francisco, even San Diego are effectively dominated electorally by Black voters even when they make up a very small proportion of the electorate today.

A great example at a larger scale is the recent primary for Karen Bass's district (37) where the top three candidates were all Black representing different ideologies and interests despite the Black population now being only 36% of the CVAP.

Throughout city council and other local races Black politicians continue to represent majority Latino communities. This is changing, but the general culture around voting and electoral participation among Latinos remains very low in many communities. I would probably attribute it to "not feeling like a part of a team" - many young Latinos I have met just don't feel like they have a strong affiliation for either party, and don't possess the same distaste for the Republican party that many Black voters feel (this is obviously a huge generalization as there are definitely a significant a large number of Latinas in particular who identify very strongly with the Democratic party)

It is a major reason Democrats should be concerned long-term - if they cannot figure out how to reach these voters Republicans might do so first, quite possibly as soon as this fall as Trump managed to start two years ago.

[ProgressiveModerate]

I think where this is shockingly relevant is in local elections. Several city council seats or assembly seats in Los Angeles, San Francisco, even San Diego are effectively dominated electorally by Black voters even when they make up a very small proportion of the electorate today.

A great example at a larger scale is the recent primary for Karen Bass's district (37) where the top three candidates were all Black representing different ideologies and interests despite the Black population now being only 36% of the CVAP.

Throughout city council and other local races Black politicians continue to represent majority Latino communities. This is changing, but the general culture around voting and electoral participation among Latinos remains very low in many communities. I would probably attribute it to "not feeling like a part of a team" - many young Latinos I have met just don't feel like they have a strong affiliation for either party, and don't possess the same distaste for the Republican party that many Black voters feel (this is obviously a huge generalization as there are definitely a significant a large number of Latinas in particular who identify very strongly with the Democratic party)

It is a major reason Democrats should be concerned long-term - if they cannot figure out how to reach these voters Republicans might do so first, quite possibly as soon as this fall as Trump managed to start two years ago.

This is a good point. In NYC too we see it here in the Bronx where you have a lot of communities that are like 60% Hispanic - 35% Black and yet almost always send black Democrats to Congress or Albany.

The untapped Hispanic voters are probably still a net positive for Democrats IF they campaign right; I really doubt heavily Hispanic communities in large cities will outright vote anytime R soon (unless it’s Cubans in Miami). However, that is still a huge IF and if they fail they could face electoral consequences, likely more on a statewide level.

I also wonder if often being repainted by black voices makes many of these Hispanic immunities feel left out or excluded politically hence causing them to be less reliable voters causing the cycle to perpetuate

[ملكة كرينجيتوك]

The general culture around voting and electoral participation among Latinos remains very low in many communities. I would probably attribute it to "not feeling like a part of a team" - many young Latinos I have met just don't feel like they have a strong affiliation for either party, and don't possess the same distaste for the Republican party that many Black voters feel (this is obviously a huge generalization as there are definitely a significant a large number of Latinas in particular who identify very strongly with the Democratic party)

It is a major reason Democrats should be concerned long-term - if they cannot figure out how to reach these voters Republicans might do so first, quite possibly as soon as this fall as Trump managed to start two years ago.

I also wonder if often being repainted by black voices makes many of these Hispanic immunities feel left out or excluded politically hence causing them to be less reliable voters causing the cycle to perpetuate

I definitely think there is a widespread perception among both Latinos and Asians that the Dem brand and the activist-media complex's discourse on racial issues are primarily for the ADOS community- even among those of us who are partisan Dems and very liberal on racial issues. If this alienates enough non-black POC voters down the line, it could seriously jeopardize progressive Dems' attempts to build a multiracial knowledge worker coalition.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of Sanders' comparatively strong performance among younger Latinos and Asians in the 2020 primaries was driven by resentment towards the Dem establishment for overemphasizing black voters in the Dem coalition and implicitly catering to an overly bronz-y (i.e. black-and-white) worldview on US race relations, on top of more bread-and-butter concerns that led young people of all races to support him.

But yes, there's no shortage of college-educated feminists/hard core socio-cultural liberals among every racial group.

On another note:

[sting in the rafters]

I definitely think there is a widespread perception among both Latinos and Asians that the Dem brand and the activist-media complex's discourse on racial issues are primarily for the ADOS community- even among those of us who are partisan Dems and very liberal on racial issues. If this alienates enough non-black POC voters down the line, it could seriously jeopardize progressive Dems' attempts to build a multiracial knowledge worker coalition.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of Sanders' comparatively strong performance among younger Latinos and Asians in the 2020 primaries was driven by resentment towards the Dem establishment for overemphasizing black voters in the Dem coalition and implicitly catering to an overly bronz-y (i.e. black-and-white) worldview on US race relations, on top of more bread-and-butter concerns that led young people of all races to support him.

But yes, there's no shortage of college-educated feminists/hard core socio-cultural liberals among every racial group.

On another note:

From that article:

“Today’s movement openly recognizes the mutually reinforcing systems of racial capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy as significant barriers to racial justice,” they write. “We will not see transformative policy change, structural reform, or a stable and lasting multiracial democracy without a new paradigm.”

I can't really speak to this as my social interactions are limited to professional and/or as a customer, but I have a hard time seeing this type of rhetoric resonating given well... AIUI most Latinos/Latino families were doing better materially than they ever had up until COVID:

Latinos start more businesses per capita than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. Over the past five years, one in 200 Latinos (0.5 percent) have started a new business every month, compared with 0.3 percent for the next highest groups (White and Asian).6 The number of Latino-owned employer firms has grown by 12.5 percent annually, compared with 5.3 percent for White-owned employer firms.7 And while Latino-owned employer businesses are concentrated in cities and states with large, dense Latino populations8 —such as Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City—45 of 50 states saw an increase in Latino-owned businesses from 2012 to 2017.9
Yet the share and the performance of Latino-owned businesses fall well short of their potential. Despite accounting for about 18.4 percent of the US population, Latinos only own about 6 percent of employer firms and around 14 percent of nonemployer firms.10 If Latinos’ share of employer business ownership reached parity with their share of the population, some 735,000 new enterprises could be added to the US economy, supporting 6.6 million new jobs.11 And if the per-firm sales of those businesses were in line with those of non-Latino White-owned businesses,12 an additional $2.3 trillion in total revenue could be generated.13

Latino wealth has grown by an average of around 7 percent annually for the past 20 years, more than twice the rate of non-Latino White wealth.27 Wealth is also increasing by generation, especially from the first generation to the second (Exhibit 5). In fact, children of foreign-born Latino immigrants experience higher economic mobility than their US-born peers.28

There’s no doubt Latinos are slowly being more fully integrated into the US economy. Yet there’s also no doubt there’s a long way to go, especially for first-generation Latino immigrants. Addressing the barriers preventing Latinos from fully participating not only is morally right—and in keeping with the essence of the American dream—but presents an opportunity to make the economy more robust for everyone. We’re not suggesting the gaps we’ve identified can be addressed easily or quickly, or that we have all the answers. But we hope this work provides a starting point for enhancing the dynamism of the economy for all Americans.

Again, this isn't a community I myself interact with, so I may be completely off-base here, but I also wonder how that type of ascension is what causes the fabled Hispanic swing towards the incumbent: "Oh, I've only been doing better and better since that guy became president? Well phuck Imma stick w/them!"

[ProgressiveModerate]

Another factor could be that a lot of Dems always treat black voters as their heros in speeches, and while yes, Hispanic and Asian voters aren't as lopsided towards Dems and likely will never be, their votes are still a hugely important part of Dems path to victory in many key areas. Dems just never seem to talk about them to the same degree, and when they do it's all to often lumped with black voters.