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“WHITENESS” IN CONTEXT

Racial Identification among Mexican-Origin Adults in California and Texas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2020

Jorge Ballinas  and
James D. Bachmeier
Jorge Ballinas*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Temple University
James D. Bachmeier
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Temple University
*
Corresponding author: Jorge Ballinas, Department of Sociology, Temple University, 756 Gladfelter Hall, 1115 Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122. E-mail: jorge.ballinas@temple.edu
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Abstract

Using data from the 2008–2016 American Community Survey, we compare the racial identification responses of the Mexican-origin population residing in California to their counterparts in Texas, the two states with the largest and most established Mexican-origin populations. We draw on existing theory and research in order to derive a theoretical account of state-level historical mechanisms that are likely to lead to varying patterns of racial identification within the two states and a set of propositions predicting the nature of this variation. Results indicate that the Mexican-origin population in Texas is substantially more likely to claim White racial identification than their counterparts in California, even after accounting for factors related to racial identity formation. Further analysis indicates that this result is robust and buffets the notion that the historical development of the racial context in Texas has engendered a present-day context in which “Whiteness” carries a distinctive social value, relative to California’s ethnoracial context, and that this social value is reflected in the ways in which individuals of Mexican origin respond to race questions on U.S. Census surveys.

Keywords

Racial IdentificationWhitenessMexicansAssimilationRacial Hierarchy
Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , Fall 2020 , pp. 311 - 336
Copyright
© 2020 Hutchins Center for African and African American Research

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