Abstract
How racial barriers play in the experiences of Mexican Americans has been hotly debated. Some consider Mexican Americans similar to European Americans of a century ago that arrived in the United States with modest backgrounds but were eventually able to participate fully in society. In contrast, others argue that Mexican Americans have been racialized throughout U.S. history, and this limits their participation in society. The evidence of persistent educational disadvantages across generations and frequent reports of discrimination and stereotyping supports the racialization argument. In this paper, we explore the ways in which race plays a role in the lives of Mexican Americans by examining how education, racial characteristics, social interactions, relate to racial outcomes. We use the Mexican American Study Project, a unique data set based on a 1965 survey of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles and San Antonio combined with surveys of the same respondents and their adult children in 2000, thereby creating a longitudinal and intergenerational data set. First, we found that darker Mexican Americans, therefore appearing more stereotypically Mexican, report more experiences of discrimination. Second, darker men report much more discrimination than lighter men and than women overall. Third, more educated Mexican Americans experience more stereotyping and discrimination than their less educated counterparts, which is partly due to their greater contact with whites. Lastly, having greater contact with whites leads to experiencing more stereotyping and discrimination. Our results are indicative of the ways in which Mexican Americans are racialized in the United States.
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Notes
Enumeration forms and questionnaires found in the IPUM website: http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/tEnumForm.shtml.
Enumeration forms and questionnaires found in the IPUM website: http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/tEnumForm.shtml.
Enumeration forms and questionnaires found in the IPUM website: http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/tEnumForm.shtml.
Up to 1950, the Mexican origin population comprised the vast majority Hispanics in the United States. Puerto Ricans were only beginning to migrate to New York City and the Cuban immigration had not begun in earnest (Bean and Tienda 1987). Mexican Americans continue to be the majority at about 66%.
By 1980, while Mexicans continue to be the largest Hispanic group, there are significant numbers of Puerto Ricans and Cubans residing in the United States. By 2000, there are significant of Dominicans and Central Americans (Guzman 2001).
Also unacknowledged by census officials is that the race question itself is confusing since it includes seven Asian categories (Asian Indian Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, other Asian), four Pacific Islander categories (Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, other Pacific Islander), and only four race categories (White, Black, American Indian, some other race). The census question on race includes many more country of origin or ethnic categories than racial categories.
School segregation of Mexican American children was common in California and Texas. In 1928, 64 schools in eight Southern California counties had Mexican student enrollments of 90% or more (cited in Sanchez 1993: 258). Another study reported that 80% of school districts with substantial Mexican American enrollment practiced segregation (cited in Sanchez 1993: 258). Alvarez (1986) lists 64 schools in eight California counties, including several in Los Angeles, that were 90–100% Mexican. Well-known California judicial cases of segregation included the school districts of Lemon Grove (in the 1930s) and Westminster (in the 1940s). Although segregation was documented in both California and Texas, egregious discrimination may not have endured into the 1960s in California to the same extent as it did in Texas.
“Appendix” presents correlations among the outcome variables. The interrelationships are low (less than 0.1) except for the relationship between perceptions of being stereotyping and reports of being discrimination (which equals 0.3).
The skin color chart used in our survey had 9 categories. There were few respondents in the two lightest categories and few in the two darkest categories so these categories were combined so that we ended up with seven categories.
The original MASP may have under-sampled Mexican origin women married to non-Mexican men because Spanish surname was used for sampling in more integrated neighborhoods.
Our sample appears more educated than current data on the Mexican origin. This is due to the fact that our sample is U.S. born with most being third and fourth generation. A sample of Mexican origin drawn today would be overwhelming immigrant and second generation. This results in low education levels among Mexicans today since immigrants have low levels of education.
We use robust standard errors in the logistic regression to adjust sibling clustering.
We did additional analysis in an attempt to explain the marginally relationship between skin color and identify racially as Mexican. Specifically we examined whether omitting education and non-Hispanic parent changed this relationship—making it stronger or weaker—but did not find that this marginal relationship changed in any meaningful way.
One indicator of having a non-Hispanic parent is having a non-Spanish name. We substituted having a Spanish name for having a non-Hispanic parent in the analysis to see whether this effect was different. We found similar results as we did with non-Hispanic parent. Also since respondents with a white parent tend to be lighter skin than those with two Mexican parents, having a non-Hispanic parent is correlated with skin color. Thus, it is possible that excluding skin color from the analysis might change and make significant the effect of non-Hispanic parent. We did additional analysis where we excluded skin color and doing so did not change the effect of non-Hispanic parent.
As reported in footnote 16, the effect of non-Hispanic parent is due to a relationship with skin color since excluding skin color from the analysis does not change the effect of non-Hispanic parent.
Experimental studies are the gold standard of research, including research on discrimination. As an example of this kind of study, profiles of “applicants,” actually fictional individuals with equal credentials, are submitted to employers; researchers examine whether employers call back or offer a job to “applicants”; and treating “applicants” differently based on race is evidence of discrimination because other differences among “applicants” are held constant. What an experimental design does not provide is an understanding of how discriminatory treatment affects victims in real life.
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We acknowledge comments by Gary Koeske.
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Ortiz, V., Telles, E. Racial Identity and Racial Treatment of Mexican Americans. Race Soc Probl 4, 41–56 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-012-9064-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-012-9064-8