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Using two survey experiments, I reconsider the role that the racialized physical traits and level of assimilation of salient immigrants play in shaping attitudes toward immigration. In the first experiment, a nationwide sample of 767 White, non-Latino adults was exposed to a story about a family of undocumented immigrants living in the Unites States who were at risk of deportation. Subjects were randomly assigned to view a version of the story in which the immigrants were depicted with light skin and stereotypically Eurocentric features, or dark skin and stereotypically Afrocentric features, and their level of assimilation to mainstream American culture was suggested to be high or low. Similar to previous research, the study's results show that assimilation has a direct effect on attitudes toward immigration. Yet in contrast to previous studies, the racialized physical traits proved to be a much more important factor in shaping attitudes toward immigration than previously demonstrated. The role of an immigrant's racialized physical traits was replicated in a second survey experiment of 902 White, non-Latino adults. Overall, the findings shed new light on how media depictions of immigrants are affecting immigration attitudes, as well as the nuanced ways that race continues to shape public opinion in the United States today.

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The meaning of skin color in America has often been understood in the context of Black–White racial dynamics. However, as the soon-to-be largest ethnoracial group in the United States, Latinos are positioned to reshape the meaning of color and its relationship with many consequential outcomes. Drawing upon a survey that incorporates both the newly validated, interval-level Yadon–Ostfeld Skin Color Scale for human assessments of skin color, as well as more socially objective machine ratings of skin color, we are able to differentiate the physiological and social connotations of skin color. Our findings illustrate that politics are intertwined with how Latinos label their skin color. Latinos who overestimate their lightness (darkness) take less (more) liberal positions on racialized political issues than those who do not. Overall, we illuminate how skin color identification operates as a political statement for many Latinos, as well as how these patterns magnify racialized inequalities in America.