@ Batman (74) who said “At the same time African Americans are already no longer the largest minority group in America. Soon they will no longer be the largest minority voting block. The next 50 years will see virtually every major city with a Hispanic Mayor, probably of either Mexican or Central American descent, with a similar pattern on City Councils and School Boards. What will happen with our African American population when they are no longer the recipients of the largess of the past 50 to 60 years?”

This eventuality has already been anticipated. It’s important to know that black voting power comes as much from its concentration as from its raw numbers. Consider the Congressional Black Caucus. It is comprised of one Senator from Illinois, Roland Burris (D), and 39 voting members in the House of Representatives–all Democrats. Those members come from just 20 states. In twenty-five (25) of their 39 districts, blacks are the largest ethnic bloc. In thirty-six (36) of those districts black voters make up 25% or more of the population.

Now if you think about the 20 states again, you’ll see what I meant by concentration. Even if the number (or proportion) of black voters remains constant in each state, the CBC and thus the Democratic party would lose probably 90% of these seats if the districts were less racially concentrated. Without those 30-40 seats, Democratic control would be in jeopardy.

Hispanics represent a threat to black voting strength if they live along side blacks in the same districts and vote differently. They complement it if they vote the same way, as in the case of Maxine Water’s district, CA 35, which is only 34% Black and 47% Hispanic.

If Hispanics concentrate in other districts and vote non-Democratic, they represent a threat to Democratic control generally but not so much to black voting strength.

CBC Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Black_Caucus