TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Marable’s Forecast - Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0001
[Manning Marable;person of color identity;US Census Bureau;demographic trends]
In 1993, Manning Marable predicted that "in the year 2000, fully one-third of America’s total population will consist of people of color—Latinos, Asian-Americans, Pacific-Americans, American Indians and African Americans." Marablealsoenvisioned that demographic growth would be followed by greater solidarity among diverse minority communities.The latest estimates from the Census Bureau (2018) reveal that the first half of his vision has been fulfilled.Yet whether various minority groups can sometimes share a common identity and sense of solidarity as people of color is a lingering question that has largely escaped researchers’ attention.This is a mistake, I think, and one I hope to rectify in the subsequent chapters of this book.Accordingly, I aim to convince you that despite their unique identities as Black, Asian American, Latino, and so on, members of these distinct minority groups often share an identity as people of color, or what I call PoC ID. My plan for the book involves the wholesale development of a new concept; its appraisal through novel instrumentation; the assessment of its political effects; the isolation of conditions when it matters most; and, just as importantly, the pinpointing of circumstances when it matters less or hardly at all. (pages 1 - 13)
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Chapter 1: The Elusive Quest for People of Color - Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0002
[interminority coalition;group consciousness;PoC ID]
Chapter 1 investigatestwo major bodies of literature aimed to develop the concept of a people of color identity: research on interminority coalitions and politics (e.g., Benjamin 2017; Cortland et al. 2017; Cutaia Wilkinson 2015; McClain et al. 2005) and scholarship on racial and ethnic identities and politics (e.g., Dawson 1994; Junn and Masuoka 2008; Kuo, Malhotra, and Mo 2017; Michelson and Valenzuela 2016; Pérez 2015a,b; White and Laird 2020). My discussion reveals that there is plenty to learn and draw from these literature streams if we are interested in this new attachment. Yet neither body of work, I show subsequently, nails down this concept or its measurement. I therefore heed closely the lessons of these literatures to move a few steps closer toward establishing and appraising PoC ID. (pages 14 - 22)
This chapter is available at:
University Press Scholarship Online
Chapter 2: People of Color, Unite! - Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0003
[Social Identity Theory (SIT);PoC ID framework;positive distinctiveness;Common Ingroup Identity Model (CIIM);affirmation hypothesis;solidarity hypothesis;racial uniqueness hypothesis]
Chapter 2 formally conceptualizes PoC ID and develops a theoretical framework to shed light on its political effects. Drawing on Social Identity Theory (SIT) and some of its most established tenets, I argue that while the expression of PoC ID is new, its emergence, operation, and influence as a broadly shared category is anything but. Social identity theory proposes that when a person sees their unique in-group reflected in a more broadly shared category, any benefits accruing to the larger group trickle down to the smaller groups nested below it (Gaertner et al. 1989, 1999; Transue 2007). This simple insight is the primary spark behind all of the hypotheses I derive and test across subsequent chapters. More specifically, I demonstrate that the fortunes of a pan-racial category like people of color depend critically on whether its diverse membership can perceive itself as one—and maintain that perception long enough for it to affect their politics. In generating this new knowledge about PoC ID, I then explain how a stronger grasp of this identity deepens our understanding of other larger-order attachments among racial minorities, including pan-ethnic and pan-racial identities like Latino and Asian American. (pages 23 - 32)
This chapter is available at:
University Press Scholarship Online
Chapter 3: The Many Faces of People of Color - Efrén O. Pérez, Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0004
[PoC ID;skin tone;racial disadvantages;sense of belonging;Whiteness]
In chapter 3, I deepen my conceptualization of PoC ID by examining its origins and nature. I do this by drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with self-identified people of color who are African American, Asian American, or Latino, including some who describe themselves as multiracial. These rich conversations point out heretofore unknown qualities that make one a true person of color, including a shared sense of racial disadvantage that is experienced personally or vicariously, endorsement of progressive political views to remedy perceived racial injustices, and active distancing from European mannerisms and features (i.e., “looking” or “acting” White). This chapter also marshals evidence suggesting that part of the draw of identifying with the PoC category is its affirming and celebratory sense of the many attributes that mark one as non-White, especially compared with identifying with a category like minority.I then demonstrate, using a psychological task known as the Implicit Association Test, that both non-Whites and Whites mentally associate—quite effortlessly, actually—different minority groups with the broader category people of color. Taken together, the evidence in this chapter supports and furthers my efforts to formally appraise the influence of PoC ID on US minority politics. (pages 33 - 66)
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Chapter 4: New Wine in New Bottles - Efrén O. Pérez, Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0005
[PoC ID;nested identities hypothesis;PoC ID measure;political views]
In Chapter 4,I reason that PoC ID is an individual difference that all US racial and ethnic minorities display to a degree. In other words, it is not the case that a non-White individual is either a person of color or not, but instead that non-White minorities identify as PoC to a quantifiable extent. Those individual differences in PoC ID are what any measure of this identity should capture. And such a measure should do so without confusing PoC ID with other major attachments held by minorities, like their racial or national identity. Such a measure should also reflect PoC ID without conflating it with the very things this identity should explain, including solidarity with minorities, favorable feelings toward minorities, and a shared consciousness of being minorities. I accomplish all this by drawing on SIT’s concept of identity centrality: the notion that a category like people of color varies in how crucial it is to a person’s self-definition. Seizing on this parsimonious conceptualization, I develop and validate a measure of PoC ID in three national samples of Black, Asian American, and Latino adults, which I call the “People of Color” surveys. (pages 67 - 91)
This chapter is available at:
University Press Scholarship Online
Chapter 5: I Feel Your Pain, Brother - Efrén O. Pérez, Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0006
[person of color identity;I Feel Your Pain experiment;group unity;individual diversity;Social Identity Theory (SIT);group identification;self-stereotyping;perceived homogeneity]
Chapter 5 uses a series of studies called the “I Feel Your Pain” experiments to provide initial evidence about the steadfast influence of PoC ID among distinct racial and ethnic minority groups. The aim of these studies is disarmingly simple: to demonstrate that minorities’ reactions to racial affronts are just as strong and swift when their own racial in-group is involved as when other minority out-groups are entangled, which would provide a sincere testament to their sense of being people of color (cf. Mackie, Smith, and Ray 2008). The pattern emerging from these studies is consistent and robust: Minorities’ support for people of color depends very little on who the aggrieved minority is. Blacks, Asians, and Latinos all come to the support of people of color in equal measure when their own in-group is involved as when other minorities are embroiled. The evidence presented in this chapter firmly establishes a simple point: PoC ID is, in fact, a broadly inclusive, pan-racial category, in line with my theoretical reasoning and in-depth interviews. (pages 92 - 120)
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Chapter 6: Galvanizing People of Color
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0007
[Poc ID;politicization;Social Identity Theory (SIT);political galvanization;racial politics;political galvanization experiment]
Chapter 6 continues the presentation of experimental evidence to shed light on the circumstances under which PoC ID is politicized.Social identity theory teaches us that one reliable trigger to such politicization is the presence of threat to an in-group, which can manifest as a threat to the distinctiveness of an in-group in relation to an out-group, to the value of an in-group relative to an out-group, or to the very existence of an in-group in relation to out-groups. The generic prediction flowing from this work is that in the absence of threat, a particular social identity lies dormant or is weakly influential, but when a threat occurs, that identity is activated, with more highly identified group members affirming their membership in the embattled category. Building on these insights, I undertook three parallel experiments with Black, Asian, and Latino adults to assess the conditions under which PoC ID is politically activated, what I call the “PoC Unity” experiments. These experiments show thatit takes very little to politicize PoC ID among people of color because this attachment is already highly politicized for those who more strongly identify with this pan-racial group.
Chapter 7: Falling Apart - Efrén O. Pérez, Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0008
[Distinct Stations experiment;Distinct Experiences experiment;distinctiveness;PoC ID;parallel station;parallel experience]
Chapter 7 shifts gears from showing when PoC ID matters politically to when it hardly matters at all. My theoretical discussion from chapter 2 suggests that the glue that holds a pan-racial group like people of color together consists of Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and other minorities seeing themselves as one—which is to say, underemphasizing the fact that they belong to distinct racial and ethnic in-groups. Yet social identity theory also teaches us that one of the most powerful threats to an in-group involves undermining its distinctiveness—that is, how coherent and special it is perceived to be. In the case of people of color, this undermining would entail reminding Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and other minorities about the unique struggles and aspirations of their respective racial and ethnic in-groups. Seizing on these insights, I undertook the “Distinct Stations” and the “Distinct Experiences” experiments.The lesson from this study is this: the degree to which people of color see themselves as one, politically, depends in large measure on whether they are encouraged to see the similarities between their subgroups or the differences that separate them. (pages 147 - 178)
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Conclusion: People of Color in a Diversifying World - Efrén O. Pérez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226799933.003.0009
[person of color identity;intergroup conflict;intergroup cooperation;group identity;group attachment;PoC ID]
In the conclusion, I turn to reviewing and integrating the major empirical findings of my book. Specifically, I discuss their implications for political decision making among racial and ethnic minorities, paying special attention to how the presence and influence of PoC ID complicates and deepens our understanding of politics in a racially diversifying nation. Throughout my discussion, I wrestle with the normative implications raised by the presence of a pan-racial identity that can be bolstered or minimized simply on the basis of perceived commonality or difference. (pages 178 - 186)
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