Mexican Americans’ Perceptions of Inequality: Cultural and Structural Explanations

• In Event: 452 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 14. Racial Identity

Abstract

Researchers concerned with public opinion regarding policies designed to remedy social inequalities, often assume that popular views depend on perceptions of the root causes of inequality. In other words, people who believe structural or social barriers perpetuate inequality are expected to favor policies designed to combat discrimination and change the opportunity structure, whereas individuals who use cultural justifications for inequality are presumed to be less supportive of these same policies. Although seemingly logical, these relationships are often assumed rather than tested. Furthermore, the handful of studies testing this relationship have used survey methodology and focused on Whites’ and to a lesser degree Blacks’, racial attitudes to the near complete exclusion of qualitative methods and the “racial middle.” Given these gaps in the literature, in this article we rely on data from 72 in-depth interviews with Mexican Americans to understand the relationship between their stratification beliefs and their opinions on affirmative action policies. The majority of our respondents held views that defied expected relationships: many embraced cultural explanations for inequality yet supported affirmative action while some others held structural explanations for inequality yet opposed affirmative action. We argue that our findings run contrary to some previous research because Mexican Americans’ position in the racial middle results in increased exposure to competing racial ideologies. We do not discount previous findings based on Whites’ or Blacks’ experiences; however, we do challenge assumptions of an automatic or universal relationship between stratification beliefs and policy attitudes.

Authors

• Christina Alicia Sue, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Nicole Lambert, University of Colorado Boulder