Unpacking Identity: Opportunities and Constraints for Cross-Racial Collaboration

Abstract

nities for people of color (Richeson 2015). More recent examples inlcude opposing police brutality and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement (Arora, Stout, and Kretschmer 2020). As Jennifer Richeson (2015) succinctly puts it, "it is when groups come together that real change becomes possible."Although a significant number of studies have considered the prospects for coalition building between African Americans and Latinos (Jones-Correa 2011; Kaufman 2003; Mc-Unpacking Identity: Opportunities and Constraints for Cross-Racial Collaboration m a neesh a ror a, sa r a sa dh Wa ni, a nd sono sh a hWe argue that two factors are important for cross-racial coalition building: policy convergence in key issue arenas and perceived interest alignment with other racial groups. Drawing on the 2016 National Asian American Survey, we examine two of the most salient issues Asian Americans consistently rate as among the most important: immigration and economic policy. Using principal component analysis, we plot mean scores by group to analyze national-origin clustering along these two dimensions. Next, we analyze national-origin differences in perceived interest alignment with Blacks and Latinos. Combining these two factors, we identify clusters of groups that have a strong potential for cross-racial coalition building and that face greater constraints. In sum, we propose a theoretical framework for understanding cross-racial coalition building that includes disaggregating Asian Americans by national origin, and then identify which national-origin groups have the greater opportunity to form such coalitions.

Asian Americans’ Perception of Intergroup Commonality with Blacks and Latinos: The Roles of Group Consciousness, Ethnic Identity, and Intergroup Contact

“…Asian Americans who are politically independent (p = < 0.05), as well as those who do not think in terms of political parties (p = < 0.01), are also more likely to feel close to Latinos. This supports the prior findings that Asian Americans who are Democrats tend to support the BLM movement (Merseth 2018;Yellow Horse et al 2021) as well as to perceive higher levels of commonality with outgroups (Arora et al 2021).…”

“…Second, future scholars should fully examine the effects of ethnic identity and ethnic variations on Asian Americans' feelings of closeness to outgroups. Our finding that respondents' strong ethnic identity is associated with Asian Americans' perceived commonality with outgroups is consistent with a recent study highlighting the importance of understanding Asian Americans by national origins for cross-racial collaboration (Arora et al 2021). In their attempt to identify opportunities and constraints for inter-minority coalitions, Arora and his colleagues (2021) argue that certain ethnic groups such, as Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese Americans, face greater constraints to forming such coalitions due to incongruence in their policy positions with Blacks and Latinos than other Asian ethnic groups.…”

“…Several basic demographic and socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, education, income, employment, and marital status are included in the model. In addition, political orientation such as party identification is included because liberal-leaning Asian Americans perceive higher levels of policy interest alignment with other racial groups (Arora et al 2021;Ramakrishnan 2014;Wong and Shah 2021). Moreover, we include acculturation factors, such as nativity and length of stay because of the unique immigration nature of the Asian American community.…”

“…Along with Latinos, the Asian American population is also very diverse in terms of national origin, language, and immigration history, and there is no one ethnicity that predominates in this group (Aoki and Takeda 2008;Lien et al 2004;Wong et al 2011). Thus, scholars have challenged the formation of a monolithic Asian American bloc and highlighted the importance of recognizing intragroup heterogeneity in studying Asian Americans (Arora et al 2021;Drouhot and Garip 2021;Huang 2021;Wong et al 2011). Previous research notes that Asian Americans are more likely to identify with an ethnic group based on their national origin than pan-ethnic racial identity (Junn and Masuoka 2008;Lien et al 2003;Masuoka 2006).…”

“…When it comes to Asian Americans' intergroup commonality, there is a small amount of meaningful qualitative work that examines possibilities and challenges in Asian American collaborations with other groups of color in California (Hope 2019;Johnson 2004;Kim and Lee 2001;Okamoto and Gast 2013;Ramakrishnan 2014). Recently, more scholarly efforts have been made to examine what contributes to shaping the interracial attitudes of Asian Americans toward Blacks (Arora et al 2021;Yellow Horse et al 2021;Merseth 2018;Nicholson et al 2020) and Latinos (Huang 2021;Lu 2020a). Yet this topic of research is relatively understudied as well, as quantitative research that tests all competing theoretical explanations in a model is limited.…”