U.S. racial and ethnic relations in the twenty-first century

The study of U.S. racial and ethnic relations is often reduced to the study of racial or ethnic relations. This article reveals the limitations of a focus on ethnicity or race, in isolation, and instead urges a new framework that brings them together. We consider three cases that have been conceptua...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethnic and racial studies 2017-10, Vol.40 (13), p.2181-2209
Main Authors: Valdez, Zulema, Golash-Boza, Tanya
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
21st century
African Americans
Assimilation
Critical race theory
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Ethnic relations
Ethnicity
Immigrants
Life chances
Mexican Americans
Middle class
middle-class minorities
Minority groups
Race
race and ethnicity
Race relations
Racial identity
Racial inequality
Racism
Social capital
Social conditions & trends
Social inequality
Social isolation
Social structure
Systemic racism
undocumented immigrants
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Summary:The study of U.S. racial and ethnic relations is often reduced to the study of racial or ethnic relations. This article reveals the limitations of a focus on ethnicity or race, in isolation, and instead urges a new framework that brings them together. We consider three cases that have been conceptualized by the ethnicity paradigm as assimilation projects and by the race paradigm as structural racism projects, respectively: (1) African-American entrepreneurs; (2) the Mexican middle class; and (3) black immigrant deportees. We reveal the shortcomings of the ethnicity paradigm to consider race as a structural force or to acknowledge that structural racism conditions incorporation in marked ways; and the limitations of the race paradigm to take seriously group members' agency in fostering social capital that can mediate racial inequality. Instead, we offer a unifying approach to reveals how ethnicity and race condition members' life chances within the U.S. social structure.
ISSN:0141-9870
1466-4356
DOI:10.1080/01419870.2016.1262052