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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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013089
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01308900.050
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 28A Brightly Colored TinderboxMiami's latest riot highlights tensions between immigrants andnative-born blacks
Behind a facade of glitzy beach-front hotels, Miami is a
seething melting pot of impoverished blacks and immigrants from
Latin America and the Caribbean. Last week, for the fourth time in
a decade, the melting pot boiled over. On the night of the national
holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and as the city was
preparing to play host to the Super Bowl, a Colombian-born
policeman shot and killed a black motorcyclist speeding through the
streets of Overtown, a ghetto just northwest of downtown. A
passenger riding on the rear of the motorcycle was fatally injured
in the resulting crash. The incident triggered two nights of arson,
looting and random shootings that spread from Overtown to the
nearby black ghetto Liberty City.
By the time the rioting subsided, one looter had been killed,
22 people had been wounded, and property damage was estimated at
$1 million. Police arrested 385, mostly for looting. The toll was
modest, compared with the 18 killed, 400 wounded and $100 million
in devastation wrought by the Miami riots of 1980. But like the '80
melee and conflagrations in '82 and '84, last week's upheaval
brought into sharp focus the tensions that have grown for nearly
three decades between native-born blacks and new arrivals from
Cuba, Haiti and now Nicaragua.
The hostilities date back to 1965, the beginning of a six-year
airlift that brought 260,000 refugees from Fidel Castro's Cuba to
Miami. Just as the civil rights movement was beginning to open
doors for advancement, blacks found themselves competing with the
Cubans for jobs, housing and other opportunities. Since then, the
number of Hispanics has more than tripled, to 825,000; they now
outnumber blacks by 450,000. Cubans have become the dominant
economic and political force in Miami. The city's first Cuban-born
mayor, Xavier Suarez, 39, was elected in 1985.
Blacks, by contrast, have made few economic or political
strides. Since 1980, black unemployment in Dade County has risen
to 10.4%, and the jobless rate for Hispanics has dropped to 5.8%.
While Cubans have expanded their ownership of small businesses,
Miami has one of the smallest black professional classes of any
city its size. In recent years 70,000 hardworking Haitian
immigrants have also begun to carve out a niche for themselves.
Says Marvin Dunn, a black psychologist who co-authored a study of
the 1980 riots: "A larger and larger segment of the black community
is falling farther and farther behind the rest of us in income and
in the quality of life."
Miami is now in the grip of a new surge of immigration, this
time from Nicaragua. Fleeing economic misery and political
persecution in that embattled Central American country, as many as
200 refugees a day are hitting town. By the end of this year, an
estimated 100,000 more Nicaraguans will seek refuge in Miami. The
city has not experienced such an overwhelming influx since the
Mariel boatlift deposited 125,000 Cuban refugees in 1980.
Many blacks charge that the city goes out of its way to provide
housing, jobs and social services for the Hispanic immigrants,
while ignoring the needs of the black citizenry. "The Nicaraguans
get food, they get clothing," says Vanessa Haynes, 34, a black
data-entry officer at the University of Miami. "What do our people
get? Nothing!"
To be sure, the newest Nicaraguan refugees hardly have it easy.
Impoverished, frightened and confused, many of them were herded
into a grimy makeshift shelter at Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium.
There, cots were crammed end to end, and families crowded around
long tables eating rice and beans, Big Macs and other offerings
from local restaurants. Still, many agree with Manuel Ortega, 33,
a carpenter from Managua who says he lost his job because of his
anti-Sandinista politics, that "anything is better than home." At
week's end most of the refugees had been moved to apartments and
a church shelter.
Working in the refugees' favor is a formidable Hispanic power
structure in Miami that has aggressively reached out to new
arrivals, trying to integrate them into the city. Miami's blacks,
meanwhile, feel that the Hispanic powers have conspired to keep
them out of the economic mainstream.
Their anger has combined with an epidemic of drug use to turn
Liberty City and Overtown, where many buildings are painted gaudy
shades of yellow, orange and green, into brightly colored
tinderboxes. The rage is compounded by deep-seated animosity toward
the police, 43% of whom are Hispanic. Like last week's violence,
all of Miami's previous riots ignited after white or Hispanic
officers shot black suspects. Twice last year, Miami police on drug
raids burst into the homes of innocent black people. Black citizens
accuse Hispanic officers of waging a vendetta against black youths.
Last week's shooting of Clement Lloyd reinforced that
suspicion. Lloyd, 23, and Allan Blanchard, 24, were tearing through
the streets of Overtown on Lloyd's motorcycle. Officer William
Lozano spotted the speeding vehicle. Lozano drew his revolver and
fired -- an apparent violation of the police department policy that
prohibits the use of deadly force against traffic violators.
According to Lozano's attorney, Lloyd and Blanchard were driving
directly toward the policeman, and Lozano acted in self-defense.
Mayor Suarez helped establish a committee of five black
Overtown residents and five members of the police force to examine
the riot. He has also suggested psychological testing of officers
to weed out violence-prone bigots. Lozano, meanwhile, has been
relieved of duty, with pay, as police, the state attorney's office
and the FBI investigate the shooting.
Speedy action by Suarez and the firmness of police cooled
Miami's immediate crisis. But more fundamental steps are necessary
to help the city cope with the sudden inundation by Nicaraguan
refugees while providing its alienated black citizenry with a
greater stake in economic opportunity and political power. Unless
action is taken soon, it may be only a matter of time before
Miami's melting pot blows its lid again.