Blacks may be second class, but they can’t make them leave: Mexican racial formation and immigrant status in Winston-Salem

Posted in Latino Studies, Social Science, United States on 2012-12-30 03:31Z by Steven

Blacks may be second class, but they can’t make them leave: Mexican racial formation and immigrant status in Winston-Salem

Latino Studies
Volume 10, Issue 1 (Spring/Summer 2012)
pages 60-80
DOI: 10.1057/lst.2012.7

Jennifer A. Jones, SBS Diversity Post Doctoral Fellow
Ohio State University, Columbus

In this article, I investigate how race is produced by looking at the reception experiences of Afro and Mestizo Mexican migrants to the new South. Despite the fact that Afro and Mestizo Mexicans are both phenotypically and culturally distinct from one another, they assert a shared racial identity as minorities and as Latinos. On the basis of ethnographic field work in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I argue that their perceived similarities with African Americans and pervasive discrimination owing to status drives Afro-Mexicans to assert a race-based Latino identity that is shaped by their understanding of African American experiences.

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Parental messages concerning Latino/Black interracial dating: An exploratory study among Latina/o young adults

Posted in Articles, Latino Studies, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2012-12-30 02:02Z by Steven

Parental messages concerning Latino/Black interracial dating: An exploratory study among Latina/o young adults

Latino Studies
Volume 10, Issue 3 (August 2012)
pages 314-333
DOI: 10.1057/lst.2012.24

Erica Morales, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Missouri

Many immigrant groups have racially distanced themselves from Blacks due to anti-Black prejudice and stigma. Racial distancing can be transmitted to children through regulating intimate contact with Blacks. Few studies have examined how Latino young adults receive racialized messages from their immigrant parents about dating Blacks. In-depth interviews reveal that Latino young adults encounter messages regarding mixed race children, perceived cultural differences and the US racial hierarchy. This regulatory process is gendered with Latinas experiencing more explicit sanctioning than Latino men. This study illuminates how Latino parents create racialized and gendered boundaries between their children and Blacks.

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