Cautious Optimism: Latinx Young Adults’ Perspectives on the American Dream

Based on photovoice and interview data from 144 Arizona young adults collected as part of the Arizona Youth Identity Project, this article builds on the concept of collective effervescence and symbolic violence through an analysis of U.S. flag images submitted by our respondents during the 2020 presidential election. Drawing on the literature on identity, belonging, and national symbols, this article highlights three main themes. First, our data revealed the conflicted feelings of belonging and exclusion that the U.S. flag evoked in these young adults. According to some participants, the flag became a divisive symbol as it became associated with the Make America Great Again movement. Second, we highlight how the U.S. flag came to embody a form of symbolic violence, particularly after the attack on the Capitol on January 6. Finally, we show how the meaning attached to the U.S. flag is situational and fluid, and how its value as a unifying national symbol can be restored. This narrative was supported by young adults’ images of the flag with artistic modifications that reflected elements of their culture and history.

Symbolic Appropriation of the U.S. Flag: Findings from a Photovoice Study

Estrada,

Vera-Phillips,

Flores-Gonzalez

et al. 2024

“It’s Not About Numbers, It’s About Power”: How Latino Young Adults Imagine the Ethnic and Racial Demographic Future of the United States

McConnell,

Carreon

2024

The ethnoracial composition of the United States has been changing rapidly in recent decades, a trend expected to persist into the foreseeable future. While quantitative studies have investigated individual attitudes about these shifts, we know little about Americans’ more nuanced and complex views about the projected growth of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and others in the United States and the decline of non-Hispanic Whites over the next 25 to 30 years. Drawing from research about ethnoracial demographic sentiments, the sociology of the future, and U.S. generations, we offer the first qualitative exploration of how Americans imagine the country’s ethnoracial demographic future. Our analyses of intensive interview data gathered from 91 U.S.-born Latinos aged 18 to 29 in Arizona in Winter 2021 focus on how Latino Gen Z and Millennials talk about this future. Latino young adults express optimism about a more heterogeneous nation in 2050 and imagine impacts on diversity, politics and political power, and racial discrimination. However, their optimism is tempered by skepticism about whether population growth among people of color will lead to lasting and meaningful changes, given U.S. history and existing structural inequalities. Latino Gen Z and Millennials also express concerns about current and future White responses to these population dynamics. Understanding how young adults in the United States envision the country’s ethnoracial demographic future has important social, political, and economic implications.

Young Adults in Turbulent Times: Findings from the Arizona Youth Identity Project

Martin (Guest Editor)

2024

This special issue examines young adults’ beliefs, identities, and political priorities during a tumultuous political era. Each article uses different subsamples of the qualitative and quantitative data collected by the Arizona Youth Identity Project (AZYIP), an ongoing mixed-methods study since the 2020 presidential election. This introductory essay describes the broader goals of the project and AZYIP study design and highlights key themes that emerge across the studies in the special issue, including Arizona young adults’ critical awareness of social issues, commitment to active citizenship, and desire for systemic change.