“We Don’t Have any Problems”: Black Brown Relations in the New South – Brownbag Presentation
April 12, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
The Southeast has become a harbinger of twenty-first-century integration and race relations. Its unique characteristics of rapid demographic change, an explosion of anti-immigrant policies, cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and its large African-American population, have made the region a dynamic indicator of how race and race relations are changing throughout the country. How newcomers will come to identify themselves and are situated in the U.S. racial hierarchy, is on ongoing process.
In particular, I examine how the marginalization and racialization of Latinos conditions them to think of themselves as minorities, and develop both positive relationships and political ties with blacks. Specifically, I show that Latinos’ new identity comes as a result of two related processes: a political backlash against Latino immigration after a substantial welcoming period that I call ‘reverse incorporation’, and through on the ground relations with native-born community members, whose attitudes and practices shape newcomer’s ideas about race. This sense of minority status becomes cemented through positive relations with blacks and negative relations with whites. Together, these processes not only undermine pervasive arguments that black-brown relations are always strained by highlighting the role of context in shaping these relationships but also can inspire intergroup solidarity and political action.
Jennifer Jones is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Specializing in race and ethnicity, immigration, political sociology, and Latin America and the Caribbean, Jones’ recent work can be found in such journals as Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Contexts, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Latino Studies. Jones is completing her book manuscript entitled: Majority-Minority: Race, Immigration, and the Browning of the New South, under contract with University of Chicago Press.
Date posted
Aug 13, 2018
Date updated
Aug 13, 2018