Intergenerational Inferiority: Whites' Racial Ideology Toward Latinos

• In Event: 301 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Paper Session. Theorizing New Directions in Latina/o Sociology

Abstract

This study examines contemporary Latino racialization by focusing on white attitudes toward Latinos. This study draws on 40 in-depth interviews with whites from Orange County, California. The findings show that this group of white Americans believe 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 theorizes new directions in Latino/a Sociology by expanding theoretical notions of racialization.

Author

• Celia Olivia Lacayo, UCLA