From bi-racial to tri-racial: Towards a new system of racial stratification in the USAстатья из журнала
Аннотация: Abstract In this article I argue that the bi-racial order (white vs non-white) typical of the United States is undergoing a profound transformation. Because of drastic changes in the demography of the nation as well as changes in the racial structure of the world-system, the United States is developing a complex, Latin America-like racial order. Specifically, I suggest that the new order will have two central features: three loosely organized racial strata (white, honorary white, and the collective black) and a pigmentocratic logic. I examine some objective, subjective, and social interaction indicators to assess if the Latin Americanization thesis holds some water. Although more refined data are needed to conclusively make my case, the available indicators support my thesis. I conclude this article by outlining some of the potential implications of Latin Americanization for the future of race relations in the United States. Keywords: Tri-racialpigmentocracyskin-tonecolour-blindLatin Americaracism Acknowledgments This article could not have come into existence had it not been for an invitation by Professors Tyrone A. Forman and Amanda E. Lewis, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, to present at a conference in 2001. The paper benefited from discussions with my partner, Mary Hovsepian, a Palestinian sociologist at Texas A&M University. I also wish to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers of ERS as well as the Guest Editor of this special issue, Miri Song, for their valuable feedback. Last but not least, I thank David G. Embrick, a graduate student of sociology at Texas A&M University, for assisting me with the final editing of this article. Notes EDUARDO BONILLA-SILVA is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University, College Station. ADDRESS: Department of Sociology, 4351 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA. Email: This does not mean that blacks and whites have been the only racial actors in the United States's history or that more complex race relations have not existed before in some areas of the country. It just means that the macro-level racial dynamics in the United States, unlike those in many other parts of the world, have been bifurcated and that the black-white foundation has served as the yardstick to treat all other groups since the creation of the United States in 1776 (see Chapter 7 in Feagin Citation2000). For a discussion on the racialization of the world-system, see Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, Race, Nation, and Class: Ambiguous Identities (London: Verso, Citation1991). Figure 1 is heuristic rather than definitive and, thus, the main purpose of this map is to sketch how these three racial strata might look. Therefore, a few of racial or ethnic groups I place in these loosely structured groups may be out of place and not all the ethnic groups that comprise the United States are included. An important matter to disentangle empirically in the future is if the immigrant groups we label 'honorary whites' come with the racial, class, or race/class capital before they achieve honorary white status, that is, are they allowed to fit this intermediate position because of their class or because of their racial or because of a combination of race and class status? The case of West Indians–who come to the Unites States with class advantages (e.g., educational and otherwise) and yet 'fade to black' in a few generations (that is, become 'black') suggest that the 'racial' status of the group has an independent effect in this process (Kasinitz, Battle, and Miyares Citation2001). Similarly, Filipinos come to the United States highly educated and acculturated yet, because they experience severe racial discrimination, second- and third-generation Filipinos' self-identify as Filipino-American (Le Espiritu and Wolf Citation2001. For a similar finding on Vietnamese, see Zhou Citation2001). It is important to point out that occupational representation in a category does not mean equality. Chan (Citation1991) shows that many Asians are pushed into self-employment after suffering occupational sedimentation in professional jobs. See also Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston : Little, Brown & Co., Citation1993). The index of residential dissimilarity expresses the percentage of a minority population that would have to move to result in a perfectly even distribution of the population across census tracts. This index runs from 0 (no segregation) to 100 (total segregation) and its symmetrical (not affected by population size). I am not alone in making this kind of prediction. Arthur K. Spears (Citation1999), Suzanne Oboler (Citation2000), Gary Okihiro (Citation1994), Mari Matsueda (Citation1996) have made similar claims recently. This separation within the Cuban ethnic group may already be happening. See Mirta Ojito (Citation2001) 'Best of Friends, Worlds Apart', in How Race is Lived in America, Correspondents of the New York Times, pp. 23–39 (New York: Henry Holt and Company). I recognize there are alternative interpretations to these findings. One could claim that what is happening is that class is becoming more salient than race (but see Note 3), or that education and nativity are becoming better predictors of mobility. Unfortunately, no data set includes all these elements as well as the ones I suggest are becoming central to control for all these variables. In the mean time, the fact that indicators in three different areas line up in the expected direction gives me confidence that my thesis is likely. For an excellent collection analysing, among other things, the instability of intermediate mulatto and mestizo groups in Latin America and, at the same time, their agency in articulating a stake in whiteness, see Race & Nation in Modern Latin America, edited by Nancy P. Appelbaum et al. (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, Citation2003). However, I still contend that most Arab Americans will be part of this intermediate strata. First, although recent immigrants remain loyal to their ethnic communities, older, well-established Arab Americans put their emphasis 'not on their ethnicity but on their Americanism' (Suleiman Citation1994). Second, even though recent immigrants experience some economic hardships, the Census data indicate that Arab Americans have levels of education, income, and occupational standing similar to the majority community (Schopmeyer Citation2000). Lastly, although I acknowledge the vulnerability of Arab Americans in post-11 September America, there are two things to note. First, this has not led Arab Americans to develop a political programme of identification and cooperation with racial minorities. Second, we must not forget that other groups, such as Japanese Americans, suffered equal indignities in the past (in the 1940s, they were interned in concentration camps, and in the 1990s they were treated as traitors during the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and yet did not become a racial underclass or change their racial attitudes and political behaviour towards the racial groups at the bottom of America's racial barrel. Additional informationNotes on contributorsEduardo Bonilla-Silva EDUARDO BONILLA-SILVA is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University, College Station. ADDRESS: Department of Sociology, 4351 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA. Email:
Год издания: 2004
Авторы: Eduardo Bonilla‐Silva
Издательство: Routledge
Источник: Ethnic and Racial Studies
Ключевые слова: Critical Race Theory in Education, Race, History, and American Society, Latin American and Latino Studies
Открытый доступ: closed
Том: 27
Выпуск: 6
Страницы: 931–950