Combatting Neoliberal Racial Projects/Colorblind Racism: Flexible Solidarity in the Spanish Origin Census Advisory Committee, 1970s-1990s

• In Event: Rethinking the Status Quo: Toward a More Equitable Future of Latina/o Sociology

Abstract

What explains the support for a Spanish origin/Hispanic ethnicity separate from race by the Advisory Committee on Spanish origin Population during the 1970s-1990s? The purpose of this paper is to trace the politics and controversies surrounding race and ethnicity measurements in the Census Advisory Committee on Spanish origin/Hispanic Populations, from the 1970s-1990s. We bridge racial formation theory, a critical race theory of the state and colorblind racism to analyze archival records from the National Archives. Our analysis reveals that members of the Census Advisory Committee on the Spanish origin population engaged in a war of position against the Census around the need to maintain separate questions on Spanish origin and race. In response the census other federal bureaucrats absorbed and insulated these demands, eventually abolishing the committee along with other minority advisory committees and reconstituting them as one National Advisory Committee in 2012. These changes can be understood as neoliberal racial projects that are part and parcel of the hegemony of the ethnicity paradigm and colorblind racism, namely abstract liberal, minimization of racism through the normalization of antiscience. We highlight moments of historic and contemporary resistance to these dynamics, as evidenced by the flexible solidarity practiced by the Census Advisory Committee on Spanish Origin Populations for the 1980 and 1990 Census (e.g., heterogeneous Latino communities and with other minority advisory committees). These findings have major implications for the future of civil rights monitoring, voting rights and apportionment as well as implications for the future of solidarity within Latino communities and beyond.

Authors

• Sharan Kaur Mehta, The University of New Mexico

• Nancy López, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque

• Joaquín Argüello de Jesús, University of New Mexico