Black Elites and Latino Immigrant Relations in a Southern City: Do Black Elites and the Black Masses Agree?

Something in Common?

“…First, we recognize that our definition of elites, although in line with much of the work in political science, may unduly restrict the number of influential voices in the Latino community. As a result, we are in agreement with Lee (2002) and McClain et al (2008) that when examining minority communities, the definition of “elite” should include not only political actors who are part and parcel of formal institutions, but individuals located at the boundaries of this formal political system such as local community leaders, church leaders, media personalities, and national interest group leaders, actors who all have historically been influential in shaping Latino opinion and participation in the United States (Brennan and Kim, 2006; Garcia 2003; Hammerback et al, 1985; Kaplowitz 2005; Leighley 2001; Marquez and Jennings, 2001; McManis 2006). Regrettably, our study examines only the impact of Latino elites whose “primary business is governing the nation” (Carmines and Kuklinski, 1990, p. 266).…”

Different Game, Different Frame?: Black Counterdiscourses and Depictions of Immigration in Atlanta's African-American and Mainstream Press

“…In our analyses of immigration coverage in the black press, we expect to find that through the production of a black counterpublic, the discourses in the African‐American press would subvert or reconfigure meanings of the immigrant discourses that are common in the mainstream press (Jacobs 2006). Given that the black press has historically been a forum for debates on social policy (Wolseley ; Dawson ; Pough ) and that black opinion is split on immigration issues (Diamond ; McClain et al ), we expect multiple and potentially competing black counterdiscourses on immigration. Within these debates, some of the discourses on immigration in the black press may coincide with public discourse and others will be distinct.…”

Race, partisanship, and perceptions of inter-minority commonality

“…3 Perhaps more importantly, the exclusion of blacks and whites from the analysis unnecessarily limits our ability to determine whether perceptions of commonality among members of different racial and ethnic groups respond to the same set of factors. This limitation is particularly troubling in light of research suggesting that whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians each formulate their political opinions in slightly different ways (Dawson 1994;Hajnal and Lee 2011;Junn and Masuoka 2008;Lee 2002;Lee 2008;McClain 2008;Segura and Alves Rodrigues 2006;White 2007).…”

“…Second, research has suggested that elite opinion theory may have trouble explaining the dynamics of minority public opinion (Dawson 1994;Hajnal and Lee 2011;Lee 2002;McClain 2008;White 2007). While scholars have pointed to a wide variety of reasons for the limited generalizability of elite opinion theory, including the excessively restrictive definition of "elites" used in most elite opinion studies (Lee 2002;McClain 2008), the unique historical experiences faced by minority groups in the US (Dawson 1994) and the relatively new arrival of Asian and Latino immigrants (Hajnal and Lee 2011), there is little disagreement that elite-driven accounts of public opinion have traditionally struggled to account for the attitudes of non-whites.…”

“…While scholars have pointed to a wide variety of reasons for the limited generalizability of elite opinion theory, including the excessively restrictive definition of "elites" used in most elite opinion studies (Lee 2002;McClain 2008), the unique historical experiences faced by minority groups in the US (Dawson 1994) and the relatively new arrival of Asian and Latino immigrants (Hajnal and Lee 2011), there is little disagreement that elite-driven accounts of public opinion have traditionally struggled to account for the attitudes of non-whites. Even elite opinion theory's preeminent scholar, Zaller, conceded that elite opinion theory was unlikely to be useful in studies of African-American attitudes because "blacks evaluate … information in light of somewhat different leadership cues" (1992,92).…”