EthnicMajority

(New York Times) The White House said Tuesday that Cecilia Muñoz, who has led its efforts to overhaul immigration laws, had been named director of the Domestic Policy Council, making her one of President Obama’s chief advisers on a broad swath of issues, including education and gay rights.

Ms. Muñoz, the highest-ranking Hispanic in the White House, had served as director of intergovernmental affairs. She replaces Melody Barnes, who left this month. Her promotion is notable because it comes at the start of an election year in which Hispanic voters are expected to play a major role.

“Over the past three years, Cecilia has been a trusted adviser who has demonstrated sound judgment day in and day out,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “Cecilia has done an extraordinary job working on behalf of middle-class families, and I’m confident she’ll bring the same unwavering dedication to her new position.”

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(Washington Post) Four years ago in Iowa, Republican caucus-goers chose illegal immigration as the most important issue facing the country. The issue of how to deal with more than 10 million unauthorized immigrants is not playing a central role in the 2012 GOP race. But fresh numbers from the Pew Hispanic Center reveal that Republicans have made little progress since 2008 in courting a fast-growing Hispanic voting bloc, two-thirds of whom voted for Barack Obama.

In their basic political party identification – the continental plates of American politics – 67 percent of Hispanics identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with 20 percent who lean toward Republicans. The 47-point Democratic advantage is larger than at any point in more than a decade of polls, including 2008, when 26 percent of Hispanics sided with the Republican Party. As we noted Thursday, Obama leads Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney by 68 to 23 percent among Hispanic voters in a hypothetical general election match-up.

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(Examiner.com) A survey released Wednesday, December 28 by Pew Hispanic Center shows that Latinos disapprove how President Obama has handled the deportation of illegal immigrants. However,  the poll also shows that they would vote to re-elect him.

According to Pew, deportations under Obama reached record levels, and rose to an annual average of nearly 400,000 since 2009; double the average of George W. Bush’s first term and 30% higher than his second term.

The record deportations came after president Obama promised an immigration reform and stating in an address in front of La Raza National Council that “communities are terrorize by ICE’s immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies,” when he was a candidate.

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(USAToday) Barack Obama is again an Internet sensation.

A 29-year-old Barack Obama.

Internet users are enjoying a 1991 television spot in which Obama — then a student at Harvard Law School — talks about pioneering African-American lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston.

Obama — longer hair, no gray — taped the spot as part of the "Black History Minute" series run by the TBS cable station in 1991.

Who could have guessed the heights that young man would have reached in less than two decades?

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(Afro) President Barack Obama held the first ever African-American Policy in Action Leadership Conference at the White House on Nov. 9 to coincide with the release of a report, “The President’s Agenda and the African-American Community.”

In front of a gathering that included Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, the president used the conference to lay out his policy achievements three years after winning the Oval Office with the solid embrace of Black Americans.

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(Washington Post) President Barack Obama acknowledged on Wednesday that black Americans have faced “enormous challenges” with unemployment under his watch, and appealed for their support in pursuing solutions that he can implement without help from Congress.

Appearing at a daylong White House summit of black business, community and political leaders, Obama said the current 15.1 percent unemployment rate among blacks is “way too high,” and that various other problems that plagued black communities before he took office, such as housing and education, have worsened.

“We know tough times,” the president said. “And what we also know, though, is that if we are persistent, if we are unified, and we remain hopeful, then we’ll get through these tough times and better days lie ahead.”

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(Washington Post) President Barack Obama acknowledged on Wednesday that black Americans have faced “enormous challenges” with unemployment under his watch, and appealed for their support in pursuing solutions that he can implement without help from Congress.

Appearing at a daylong White House summit of black business, community and political leaders, Obama said the current 15.1 percent unemployment rate among blacks is “way too high,” and that various other problems that plagued black communities before he took office, such as housing and education, have worsened.

“We know tough times,” the president said. “And what we also know, though, is that if we are persistent, if we are unified, and we remain hopeful, then we’ll get through these tough times and better days lie ahead.”

Full story…

(Washington Post) President Barack Obama acknowledged on Wednesday that black Americans have faced “enormous challenges” with unemployment under his watch, and appealed for their support in pursuing solutions that he can implement without help from Congress.

Appearing at a daylong White House summit of black business, community and political leaders, Obama said the current 15.1 percent unemployment rate among blacks is “way too high,” and that various other problems that plagued black communities before he took office, such as housing and education, have worsened.

“We know tough times,” the president said. “And what we also know, though, is that if we are persistent, if we are unified, and we remain hopeful, then we’ll get through these tough times and better days lie ahead.”

Full story…

(Boston Globe) Herman Cain's rise as a presidential contender was supposed to prove that race didn't matter in the Republican Party. Cain is fast making it the only thing that does.

The black conservative is trying to navigate around allegations that he sexually harassed at least three women, implying that the accusations surfaced because he is black. Hours after the claims were reported, Cain's supporters branded his trouble a "high-tech lynching." That's the term coined 20 years ago by another black conservative, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, after his confirmation hearings for the court were rocked by allegations of sexual harassment.

(Hispanic Business) President Obama on Wednesday praised the contributions of Hispanics to the United States and made another pitch for his stalled American Jobs Act.

Obama spoke to a crowd gathered at the U.S. Interior Department in Washington at an American Latino heritage forum organized by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, one of the top Hispanics in government.

"Diversity has always been America's strength," the president said. "We are richer because of the men and women and children who've come to our shores and joined our union. …

"And nowhere is that more true than with the Latino community. Right now, there are 54 million Americans of Latino descent — one-sixth of our population. Our neighbors, our co-workers, our family, our friends. You've helped us build our cities, grow our economy, defend our country. And today, for the first time in history, there is a Latina in my Cabinet and a Latina (Justice Sonia Sotomayor) on the bench of the highest court in the land. (U.S. Labor Secretary) Hilda Solis is doing an outstanding job."

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