I’ll do a quick thread on this bit, because a lot of people seem to be losing their minds over a statement that, quite honestly, is accurate.

Start by watching the comment that got Joe Biden in some hot water:

Now, off the bat, he should’ve left the Black American community out of it. It was entirely unnecessary to juxtapose Black American voters when talking specifically about Latino voters. He did not articulate this well.

That said, from a political standpoint what he said is true

Let’s take a step back & look at the Latino community. It is very diverse both racially and culturally, and that diversity yields greater political elasticity and diversity.

There are Latinos with blonde hair, fair skin & blue eyes (everywhere), Latinos who are of pure African ancestry (common in DR, Panama, Cuba & even Puerto Rico), Latinos who are mestizo, and even Latinos who are of East Asian descent (more common in Peru).

Culturally, there are some pretty significant differences between different Latino groups. For example, Mexican-Americans and Cuban-Americans are very different politically.

Some of this has to do with US political history (is the Wet Foot, Dry Foot policy).

To show this political divide, look at this precinct map from the 2016 election in Hialeah.

Here is another one from West Miami. These neighborhoods are heavily Cuban-American. And Trump did quite well there.

Contrast those with this precinct map of Huntington Park, Maywood & East LA. These are heavily Mexican-American neighborhoods. Quite the difference from the previous two.

Now, the Black community is also very diverse culturally.

African immigrants (there’s big differences between East & West Africans, as it’s a very diverse continent), Caribbean immigrants (also a lot of diversity between Jamaicans vs Haitians, Bahamians & Leeward Islanders)...

Black Latinos, and Black immigrant communities from just about every corner of the world have significant cultural differences from Black Americans.

And even some ideological differences (Jamaicans tend to be a bit more conservative).

With all that diversity within the Black community, it doesn’t translate into the *political* diversity that the differences in the Latino community do.

If you were to compare any precinct from heavily Black neighborhoods in any state, town or city in the US, the voting patterns would be very similar. Back on the LA example, here is Compton & Watts.

Here’s northwest Ft Lauderdale around Sunrise.

Compare that with Hollygrove in the 17th Ward of New Orleans. You know how many votes Trump got in the precinct of Lil’ Wayne’s childhood home? 3. Only 3 Trump supporters on Eagle Street. I’m not kidding.

Here is Petersburg, VA. A relatively small town with a fascinating history that I’m quite familiar with. The city itself is almost entirely Black - an island surrounded by the exurbs of Richmond.

For many reasons (I could write a book on it), Black voters tend to vote almost uniformly Democratic in a way that Latinos simply don’t. And there aren’t the same regional differences.

For presidential races, the Black vote breaks down as:

1972: 87% McGovern
1976: 83% Carter
1980: 83% Carter
1984: 91% Mondale
1988: 89% Dukakis
1992: 83% Clinton
1996: 84% Clinton
2000: 90% Gore
2004: 88% Kerry
2008: 95% Obama
2012: 93% Obama
2016: 89% Clinton

Contrast that with Latinos:

1980: 56% Carter
1984: 66% Mondale
1988: 70% Dukakis
1992: 61% Clinton
1996: 73% Clinton
2000: 62% Gore
2004: 53% Kerry (Bush won 44%)
2008: 67% Obama
2012: 71% Obama
2016: 66% Clinton

Latinos certainly lean Democratic - in some years quite heavily Democratic. But they are also a lot more elastic than other voting demographics. There are big regaional political differences, too, that don’t seem to exist as much in the Black community.