Camarillo speaks on the 'majority minority'

A majority minority. \nIt sounds like an oxymoron, but guest lecturer Albert M. Camarillo said he believes it is the future of many American cities. \nAs the 16th annual Paul V. McNutt lecturer Tuesday, the Stanford University history professor discussed the changing racial demography of Compton, Calif., painting a hopeful picture for race relations in the future.\nBorn and raised in Compton, Camarillo described to the faculty and graduate audience the area's transitional history, from prosperity to one of "suburban decline."\n"The seeds of change and transition took place in the '20s and '30s," Camarillo said. "That's when the conflict and the competition began."\nA committee of history professors selected Camarillo as this year's McNutt lecturer. \nJames H. Madison, committee member and Thomas and Kathryn Miller professor of history, said Camarillo was an excellent choice for many reasons.\n"We wanted a highly respected scholar who worked in an important subject area and also a historian who could connect that subject to today's issues," Madison said.\nPacing back and forth across the front of the State Room East in the Indiana Memorial Union, Camarillo explained block busting began in the 1950s as the white suburbanites were told to get out before their property value dropped because of African-American neighbors moving in to take advantage of the better quality of life. \nCamarillo said the fear factor was so strong that entire blocks were abandoned within days, quickly changing the prosperous community into one which resembled an inner-city ghetto. But another group was entering with the African Americans; Latinos were also searching for opportunity in the suburbs. The city had become a "majority minority."\n"It's an old story with a new twist of ethnic succession," Camarillo said.\nCamarillo said as the whites left the area, the African Americans gained the political clout they fought for in the civil rights movement. \n"It was a municipality entirely run by African Americans, and it was one run with great pride," Camarillo said. \nHowever, as they rose in power, they left behind the Latino population, causing competition and conflict between the two minorities.\n"The Latinos wanted elected officials too," Camarillo said. "They were saying, 'We want our piece of the pie.'"\nCamarillo said the tension was clear, but below the surface a revolution -- a "new racial frontier" -- was forming.\n"Could we actually have a black/brown coalition?" he asked. "You have to dig down deep to see it."\nFor example, Father Stanley, the pastor of a Compton Catholic church, wanted to end the conflict and create unity between the two cultures by mobilizing Mexican parishioners with those of some of his African-American colleagues in a sort of grassroots cooperation.\n"The idea is to get people to understand their differences and to build a platform," Camarillo said. "Why fight when we can turn this city around?"\nThe two communities are coming together in other ways. Camarillo's son is an eighth-grade teacher of American history in Compton.\n"I planted a spy in Compton," Camarillo said laughing.\nHe said his son has seen the younger generations of both African Americans and Latinos bond over the hip-hop culture.\n"Don't ask me to define it, but it has elements of conformity that the younger kids connect with," he said.\nMadison said he finds Camarillo's study of Compton's transition important. \n"This is particularly important in understanding what he calls 'the new racial frontier,' similar to and yet different from earlier American racial and ethnic experiences," Madison said. "In the specific context of African and Latino experiences, including the relationships between black and brown, it is a subject of immense future importance."\nEric Sandweiss, associate professor of history, said he is interested in the history of cities and believes race is an important aspect.\n"(Race) is one of the measures that Americans have used to measure themselves against one another, in a society that supposedly treats everyone equally," Sandweiss said. "Race plays into the paradoxes of American culture."\nThis is an American culture that Bloomington is very much a part of. Madison said he believes Bloomington is included in the "new racial frontier."\n"The most recent evidence is the increase in the Latino population of Indiana and the Midwest," Madison said. "I think race is America's most troubling and fascinating subject. Nothing is more important to understanding our past and present."\n-- Contact staff writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.