Demographic Threat and the Racial Classification of Racially Ambiguous Latinos

• In Event: 3107 - Multiracial Classification

Abstract

How do members of dominant groups, like US Whites, react when their privileged social status is threatened, for example, by the prospect of numeric decline? Prior studies identify two sets of reactions: (1) Whites identify more strongly as ingroup members, and (2) they withhold material and symbolic resources from outgroup members. Boundary-making scholars raise another possibility: Whites may alter the boundary around Whiteness by redefining the criteria for membership. The present study uses an original survey experiment to examine how demographic threat affects US Whites' classification of racially ambiguous Latinos. The results reveal that Whites are less--not more--likely to classify people who are ambiguously White or Latino as ``White" under threat. The results contribute to a growing literature on the racial classification of multiracial and racially ambiguous people that has previously ignored ambiguity around the Latino category; they also intervene in an active debate about demographic projections and the classification decisions on which they rely.

Author

• Maria Abascal, Columbia University