ABSTRACT
The discourse on race has long focused on the racial identity formation: the placement of individuals into racial categories based on socially constructed, racially ascribed characteristics. The intellectual consensus is that racial identities are formed through a social process of both self-examination and external classification by others and it is the process of racemaking that assigns individuals who are recognized as members of a given group to a specific position in the U.S. racial hierarchy (Bonilla-Silva 1997; Feagin 2006). According to the state, Latinos are an ethnic group and can therefore be any race. This has raised important sociological and political questions about how Latinos will navigate the existing racial hierarchy. Where do Latinos “fit” into America’s White-Black dichotomy? And given the nation’s established racial boundaries, how do Latinos define their racial identity? The process of racial formation is shaped by those in power and by those from below (Omi and Winant 1994); thus, a central challenge in exploring Latino racial identity is to observe how Latinos define themselves when confronted with a new system of racial categorization while recognizing that they are placing themselves in categories that do not adequately represent their self conceptions (see Hitlin et al. 2007; Brown et al. 2006, 2007). In many ways, Latino self identification is contingent on the alternatives available in various contexts and situations (Oboler 1995: 103). Research has shown that the categories included in race questions have significant implications for identification patterns, as Latinos are less likely to self-identify using standard OMB race categories (i.e. White, Black) when asked to identify their race using a question that includes standard race categories and a “Latino/Hispanic” category (Campbell and Rogalin 2006; see also Hirschman et al. 2000). Data from several nationally representative surveys also show that even when asked to identify their race using standard race categories only, some Latinos reject those choices, reporting their race to be Latino or Hispanic. 1 In my conversations about race with focus group participants in New York and Chicago, I have also found that when exploring questions of identify, context also matter. Most Latinos prefer and largely choose cultural and panethnic identifiers to identify themselves. Yet, when faced with the limitations of the existing racial hierarchy and with questions about race and ethnicity that reinforce that hierarchy, Latinos can and do make distinct racial choices that represent an authentic expression of their racial identity and lived social experience.
