Mapping Latino Racialization: White Attitudes Towards Latinos and Policy Preferences in Orange County California

My dissertation develops our theorizing about the dynamics of racialization, and the role of race and ethnicity, in the United States, particularly in order to account for the dynamics and processes unique to Latinos.

"Ask a Mexican?" Explicit Latino Racialization in Public Discourse

I have gained sole and full access to all write-in questions from the “Ask A Mexican” column by Gustavo Arellano.  This column originated in Orange County, and is now nationally syndicated, with a circulation of over two million readers. Letters are sent in by whites across the nation and represent an alternative data source from which to examine the narratives whites have about Latinos. I found that most drew from racial stereotypes as the basis for their questions, and most importantly, they collapsed Latinos across national origin and citizenship status.  I read the column as a cultural text, and analyze how racial ideology is produced and disseminated.  This column’s public format along with an increase in social media creates an environment where many whites feel comfortable publicly addressing Latinos as problematic.  Thus, backlash against Latinos and disapproval of them by whites is reflected in everyday language and in popular culture, as is seen through the Ask a Mexican column.  Thus, I argue that the hybrid  of an elite newspaper circulation with the access to user generation media component allows whites' racist views of Latinos to become public and  possibly gain more acceptance. I further argue that while colorblind frames (Bonilla-Silva) continue in public discourse, explicit racist towards Latinos is also common and on the rise.

Intergenerational Inferiority: Whites' Racial Ideology Toward Latinos

This study examines contemporary Latino racialization by focusing on white attitudes toward Latinos. Drawing on forty in-depth interviews with whites
from Orange County, California, the findings show that this group of white Americans believes that Latino culture is deficient and inferior. Moreover,the respondents explicitly ascribe these problems to the group as a whole regardless of national origin, citizenship status, or generation. The interviews reveal how whites construct Latinos as a
racial group by explaining that Latinos pass down their “deficient” culture to the subsequent generation and thus are unable to change, adapt, and progress. This reveals a racial ideology toward Latinos that I term intergenerational inferiority. This study demonstrates how external ascription affects the racial formation process of
Latinos and their position within the racial hierarchy.

Latinos Need to Stay in Their Place: Differential Racialization in a Multi-Ethnic Suburb"
 

While Latinos face high levels of segregation, there is scant research specifically addressing whites’ attitudes towards Latinos regarding their preferences. This study draws from forty in-depth interviews with whites in Orange County California, an area with a large Latino and Asian population. I demonstrate that white respondents choose to segregate themselves from Latinos. Most studies have used Blumer’s group position theory to explain white attitudes and neighborhood preference towards Blacks. My findings supports Blumer’s group position theory by revealing how white respondents feel threatened by an increase in the Latino population. Yet, the Asian population has also grown, but white respondents convey positive sentiments towards Asians, and express they feel comfortable living and interacting with them. I argue that whites respondents’ preferences with regards to integration are not solely based on the size of a group, but rather whether they characterize the group as inferior. While integration has been touted as an American principle, as the country becomes more diverse, my case study demonstrates that white respondents prefer to share space with those they feel similar to, and consequently contribute to Latino segregation.