Cracks in the Rainbow: Group Commonality as a Basis for Latino and African-American Political Coalitions

Abstract

The focus of this article is on mass attitudes and the propensity of blacks and Latinos to build electoral coalitions. The theoretical argument is that perceived commonality between Latinos and African-Americans is essential to constructing mass political alliances. Using recent public opinion data, this research explores the levels of perceived commonality between blacks and Latinos and in particular studies the process by which Latinos come to feel close to African-Americans. This article tests four main hypotheses: pan-Latino affinity, acculturation, perceived discrimination, and racial identity. Findings suggest that pan-Latino affinity is a robust predictor of Latino/black commonality, but that long-term Latino political acculturation, in its current form, is unlikely to result in particularly high levels of closeness to blacks. The conclusion of the article points to the important role that Latino leadership and political organizations play in promoting strong pan-ethnic identities and suggests that the prospects for future coalitions between African-Americans and Latinos rest, in part, on the development of these more inclusive Latino orientations.

Are British Muslims Alienated from Mainstream Politics by Islamophobia And British Foreign Policy?

“…To the extent that group membership means that an individual's own fate is linked with that of the wider community, it makes sense for individuals to substitute group utility for their own when making political decisions. This idea has gained a large amount of support in the study of African American electoral behaviour, and appears to be equally important in explaining the political behaviour of Latinos in the USA (Kaufmann, 2003;Sanchez & Masuoka, 2010;Wilson, 2012). Wilson (2012) frames this explicitly in terms of group economic voting, arguing that a key determinant of African American presidential vote choice and candidate affect was the retrospective evaluation of how the economic situation of blacks had improved, whilst personal retrospective economic evaluations were not significantly related to Democratic support.…”

Trauma, Shared Recognition and Indigenous Resistance on Social media

“…Many scholars also claim that in-group consciousness leads to increased political participation (Sanchez 2006;Sanchez & Vargas 2016), and support for coalitions with other racial/ethnic groups (Kaufman 2003;Sanchez 2008;Uhlaner 1991). Therefore, even as one sees differences between one's own group victimisation and another's, if similarities in victimisation or disadvantage exist, groups can feel a sense of linked fate to the group to which one does not belong thereby invoking a kind of group-based victim consciousness and more importantly, a sense of collective traumatisation (Volhardt 2009;Volhardt 2010;Volhardt 2012).…”

How Can I Trust You if You Don’t Know Who You Are? The Consequences of a Fluid Identity on Cross-Racial Organizing between African American Women and Latinas in Atlanta

“…Since the 2000 Census, research on intergroup relations between Latina/o and African Americans has exploded, particularly research focused on the Southeast [1,3,6,[8][9][10][11]14,18,[20][21][22]40,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. Research on coalition building centers around identifying key factors that affect a coalition's success or failure.…”

“…Jones-Correa [48] adds that local context and the perceived cost of participation also contribute to the success or failure of coalitions between African Americans and Latina/o. In general, scholars in this area argue that some form of commonality is essential for building successful collaborations between African Americans and Latina/o [1,3,8,19,[49][50][51].…”

“…Within the broader literature on coalition building, scholars discuss many factors that contribute to a coalition's success or failure. Two of the most often cited factors include identifying commonalities [8,19,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and the role of trust [1,3,4,[30][31][32][33]. Despite the acknowledgement that trust plays a significant role in coalition building, little attention has been paid to the factors that contribute to building or hindering trust between African Americans and Latina/o on a day-to-day basis.…”