Vol 18, Issue 32. November 24, 2020 |
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Now that the election is over and we will soon have a new administration in Washington, DC, we encourage Latinos in the United States to join in giving President Elect Biden’s Administration an opportunity to work on and achieve the various goals he has set out for all Americans.
We encourage the Biden Administration to consider:
- Appointing Latinos to a minimum of four of the 25 Cabinet rank positions. This is a reflection of Latinos as over 18% of the USA’s population and representing over 50% of all future growth. We salute Biden for the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Secretary, but let's keep going.
- Of all the cabinet positions, the one that effects Latinos most is the Secretary of Education. We encourage President Elect Biden to appoint a Latino as Secretary of Education. In the USA today 25% of all students are Latino.
- That the Biden Administration reactivate Executive Order Increasing Opportunities and Access for Disadvantaged Business. The National Association of Hispanic Publications along with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, representing African American publications had worked with by President Clinton and President Obama on enacting this during their administrations.
- Not forgetting to work on upgrading DACA and other immigration efforts.
Abrazos,
Kirk Whisler
Executive Editor
760-579-1696
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Political Insights
The Time Is Now To Create a White House Office for Racial Equity
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only threatened the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of people around the globe but has also triggered a national recession in the United States and worsened the racial wealth gap. Prior to the pandemic, the average net worth of a white family was 10 times greater than that of a Black family and seven times greater than that of a Latinx family.1 Black families and families of color were also less likely to have health care coverage or access to comprehensive high-quality health care2 and more likely to be occupationally segregated in low-wage jobs that lack quality benefits.3 Now, amid an economic crisis, these families continue to struggle to maintain some semblance of economic stability. The pandemic has highlighted the protective power that wealth provides to individuals and families; wealth not only makes it possible to purchase a home, start a business, or put a child through school, but also provides protection against an emergency. Unfortunately, in the United States, wealth is unequally distributed along racial lines. The inequality that Black people and communities of color face is the direct result of centuries of public policy that infringed on all aspects of life.
With no end to the pandemic in sight, the current crisis will continue to exacerbate centuries of underlying disparities and bear a disproportionate impact on both the health and economic stability of Black Americans in particular, who are still recovering from the Great Recession of 2008.4 In the past eight months, the virus has devastated communities of color and the racial wealth divide has likely widened.5 The coronavirus crisis has underscored that, now more than ever, the nation needs large-scale reform across the federal government to address the issues of racial wealth inequality in the United States.
The Center for American Progress strongly recommends that the executive branch explicitly prioritize eliminating the racial wealth gap, as it is the result of the collective and compounding impact of harms over centuries. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have both spoken about the importance of combating systematic racism. Now, they must meet this moment with a full-scale intentional and strategic plan that reaches across the entire federal government and puts in place actual infrastructure to tackle racial inequality.
This issue brief provides a menu of options for the Biden administration, all of which could be implemented within the first year:
- Create a White House Racial Equity Office
- Appoint a senior adviser to the president
- Ensure racial equity within the Executive Office of the President
- Work with Congress to modify the goals of the Council of Economic Advisers
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Political Insights
Hispanic Voters Give Democrats Another Majority
By Manuel Galván
Although the White House pendulum swings between political parties, Hispanic majorities have backed the Democratic candidate for decades. Like a family, there have been favorites, differences and suitors.
President John Kennedy was embraced by Mexican Americans. He was Catholic and spoke well of Latin America. It was common in their homes, next to a crucifix, and even in restaurants to see framed drawings of the three, Kennedy brothers. They were profiled, looking toward the future.
At the same time, Cuban Americans shunned Kennedy for Republicans. Expats had mounted an invasion to take Cuba back from Fidel Castro. They landed on the beach in the Bay of Pigs and were overwhelmed, waiting for promised U.S. air strikes that never came.
Hispanics have served and serve on both sides of the aisle. In 1983, Tony Bonilla, retiring president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), told a campaign audience in Chicago about Latinos being courted by both parties.
“When they woo you before an election, it’s like the Elvis Presley record, ‘Love Me Tender, love me true. Never let me go.’ Then after they win, they play the flip side, ‘You ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog.’”
President Ronald Regan was reelected the following year with more than a third of the Hispanic vote going Republican, a bit more than he received in 1980.
That roughly third ratio of Latinos voting for Republican presidential candidates and two thirds for Democrats has played out through the last century, based on Pew Research Center data. A notable break out was President Bill Clinton, reelected in 1996 with 72 percent of Hispanics backing him.
Latinos hit a milestone in 2003, officially declared the nation’s largest minority group by the U.S. Census Bureau. The following year, they helped reelect President George W. Bush with 40 percent of their votes.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008 and upped it to 71 percent in 2012.
Although she notched 65 percent of the Latino vote, Hillary Clinton still lost to President Donald Trump in 2016 with Hispanics moving to the right for him.
Despite the head scratching about Latinos supporting Trump this year, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to the American Election Eve Poll.
A strong majority of Latino voters favored Biden over Trump in every state as well as the District of Columbia, America’s Voice noted.
With all the diversity within the Hispanic population, it’s unlikely to landslide for Democrats, like Blacks who gave Biden 89 percent of their vote. Latinos were crucial to both parties in races up and down the ticket in every state.
Hispanics have proven they can swing an election, especially moving forward. A record 32 million Latinos are eligible to vote, a youthful growing population. Both parties would be wise to do major outreach. If they want an Elvis song as background, perhaps they should play “It’s Now Or Never.”
Manuel Galván is president of Vantage Point Marketing, a strategic consulting firm whose clients include elected officials and political candidates. He is also a founding member and past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
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Mexico Insights
Coronavirus leaves record 45% of Mexican population
in poverty, up from 36% in January
People living in poverty have monthly income under 1,700 pesos
Poverty has increased to record levels this year due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Between the first quarter of the year and the third, the percentage of the working-age population considered poor increased to 44.5% from 35.7%, according to the national social development agency Coneval. It is the highest percentage since 2005 when Coneval began keeping comparable records.
People are deemed to be living in poverty if their monthly income is insufficient to purchase a canasta básica, a basic selection of foodstuffs including beans, rice, eggs, sugar and canned tuna. The monthly cost of the canasta is about 1,700 pesos (US $84) in urban areas and 1,200 pesos in rural parts of the country.
The increase in poverty is attributed to the loss of jobs, a reduction in incomes and an increase in the price of the goods that make up the canasta básica.
Over a million formal sector jobs were lost due to the pandemic, although a recovery is now underway, and millions more who work in the vast informal sector also became unemployed or saw their incomes drop or dry up completely. Wages have decreased 6.7% in real terms compared to 2019 and people’s purchasing power declined 12.3% on average between the first and third quarters of 2020.
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Political Insights
Latino voters indicate that the President and Congress should reinstate and enforce regulations that existed prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and create clean jobs and green infrastructure to jump start the economy.
On the eve of the 2020 presidential election, we asked Latino voters (n=5,300) across the country and in the key states of AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, MI, NC, NV, PA, TX, WI about their environmental preferences. While much of the attention leading up to the election has been focused on managing the coronavirus pandemic, like all voters in the electorate, Latino voters are paying attention to a wide variety of issues, especially the environment. The findings from a poll conducted by Latino Decisions and the Environmental Defense Action Fund, finds that it is “very” and “extremely” important for the new President and Congress to take steps to protect families from water (91%) and air contamination (87%).
This comes at a time when over 1.1 million Americans are water insecure and Latinos and communities of color are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air which is ultimately leading to negative health outcomes. Unlike traditional demographic indicators that predict support for environmental policy among White Americans, Latinos are distinct in that regardless of partisanship differences both Democrats and Republicans support addressing water and air pollution and its lower income Latinos and Latinos with a High School/GED who are most likely to report the need to address pollution.
As suggested by President Elect Joe Biden’s environmental plan, “our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected”. When we asked Latinos about how to best jumpstart the economy, we find that over 84% of Latinos view long-term investments in green infrastructure and clean jobs as very and extremely important for Congress to prioritize. In fact, Latinos who have lost their job due to the Coronavirus pandemic and those who make under $50,000 a year are more likely to support investments in clean jobs. This coming at a time that nearly half (45%) of Hispanic families across the country have only $1,000 or less in savings for financial emergencies, and fully 20% with an astonishing $100 or less.
Given the saliency of the pandemic we also asked respondents, if the new President and Congress should reinstate and enforce regulations that existed prior to the Covid-19 pandemic or if we should continue loosening rules and regulations that protect the environment. The findings overwhelmingly support the statement that the US should reinstate and enforce regulations that protect the environment (87%).
This finding was especially true for Latinas, urban dwellers, Spanish speakers, and younger voters.
For nearly all Latino voters across these key states, there is a strong belief that the federal government should play a role in addressing water and air pollution while focusing on growing our clean energy economy. Further, Latinos are strong supporters of investing in clean energy. By any measure, polling data from Latino Decisions clearly finds Latino voters across the nation to be very strong supporters of long-term investments in green jobs to jumpstart the economy and protecting the environment by reinstating regulations loosened by the Trump administration. As President-Elect Joe Biden works to undue Trumps executive orders during his first 100 days, Latinos will support rejoining the Paris Agreement and support environmental policies that directly impact their lives.
Study Methodology:
National sample N=5,300, 11 state samples (n=400 each, MOE /- 4.9%) (AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, MI, NC, NV, PA, TX, WI) and n=500 national (MOE /- 1.4%). Completed interviews by landline, cell and on-line with Latino registered voters in English and Spanish at respondent’s discretion; from October 23 – November 2, 2020. Voters were identified from the voter file based on their registration date and vote history. Respondents were questioned whether they had already voted, or were certain to vote in the election. Any voter was included in the sample frame if one of these conditions applied and then weighted to match census demographics.
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LOCATIONS WHERE THE INT'L LATINO BOOK AWARDS CEREMONY IS STILL VISIBLE
You can always go to the website and click the links from there.
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Media Insights
Most Americans Think Social Media Sites
Censor Political Viewpoints
Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say major tech companies favor the views of liberals over conservatives. At the same time, partisans differ on whether social media companies should flag inaccurate information on their platforms.
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Empowering Latino Futures Insights
After two decades as Latino Literacy Now we've evolved to a name that better reflects our various programs
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Branding Insights ~ An Ongoing Series
Part 12
What other options did you consider before you chose us?
After all of the market research and investigation, you may think you know who your competitors are.
But there’s always the possibility you’ve either missed one or passed on one because their offering didn’t seem comparable to yours.
Asking your customers what companies and services they evaluated is a great way to make those unknowns known.
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Sinceramente, Kirk Whisler
Executive Editor, Hispanic Marketing 101
624 Hillcrest Lane, Fallbrook, CA 92028
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