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I use data from the 2011 Pew Survey (N = 1,033) to examine the prevalence and correlates of perceived discrimination across Muslim American racial/ethnic groups. Asian Muslims report the lowest frequency of perceived discrimination than other Muslim racial/ethnic groups. Nearly, all Muslim racial/ethnic groups have a few times higher odds of reporting one or more types of perceived discrimination than white Muslims. After controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, the observed relationships persist for Hispanic Muslims but disappear for black and other/mixed race Muslims. Women are less likely than men to report several forms of discrimination. Older Muslims report lower rates of perceived discrimination than younger Muslims. White Muslim men are more likely to report experiencing discrimination than white, black and Asian Muslim women. The findings highlight varying degrees of perceived discrimination among Muslim American racial/ethnic groups and suggest examining negative implications for Muslims who are at the greatest risk of mistreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article expands the theoretical debate on racist nativism and the specific impact that it has on the experiences of interracial mixed-status couples in the USA. In-depth interviews suggest that the costs of racist nativist microaggressions and macroaggressions are experienced differently, depending on the social status of each member of the couple. Microaggressions target Latinos/as, while racial profiling, a macroaggression, is mainly experienced by Latino men; however, in both cases their white partners also experience rebound racism on behalf of their partners. White women partnered with Latinos experience the greatest rebound effects of racist nativism. Larger macro-policies create a precarious position for couples; this leads them to make calculated legal risks to sustain their families and ultimately constrains their freedoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of police–minority relations in America focus on blacks, usually in comparison with whites. This pattern is particularly puzzling in light of the growing population of Hispanic Americans throughout the US, now outnumbering blacks and consisting of the majority in some major cities. Aside from the need for more empirical research on the policing of Hispanics per se, comparing Hispanics’ relations with the police to other racial and ethnic groups offers some important insights into both the dimensions that are shared across groups and those that are distinctive to Hispanics. This article critically evaluates the small body of empirical research literature on this topic – highlighting both deficiencies in this literature as well as suggestive findings – and concludes by identifying a set of issues that should be addressed in future studies. The available evidence largely supports a racial-hierarchy perspective with regard to the policing of different racial and ethnic groups in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I use data from the 2004 General Social Survey (N=719) and multivariate analyses to: explore the effects of race on attitudes toward Muslims; evaluate the extent to which the racial differences were mediated by psychological and religious factors; and assess whether the race effects differed significantly by gender. The findings show that blacks report significantly more favourable feelings toward Muslims than whites. Those respondents who are female, more educated and Catholic also hold significantly higher scores on the 100-point scale assessing feelings toward Muslims. After controlling for religious and psychological factors, I find that the racial difference in feelings toward Muslims is increased, indicating that the race effect is suppressed by these factors. Moderation analysis reveals that white men hold the highest level of negative feelings toward Muslims, compared to women and black men. The findings suggest challenging the misconstrued perceptions of Muslims through education and endorsement of positive images. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Some more recent evidence supports Du Bois’ prediction that the twentieth century would prove the century of the colour line. It indicates that men have always and everywhere shown a preference for fair complexioned women as sexual partners, whereas males seeking a mate are rarely disadvantaged by a dark complexion. In the employment market in the USA, a dark complexion is a significant disadvantage for both males and females. Though there is no properly comparable evidence from other countries, there appears to be a widespread tendency for any negative valuation of darker skin colour to be incorporated into a scale of socio-economic status. In some situations a colour scale is replacing the colour line. Du Bois’ reference to differences of colour has been largely superseded in English-speaking countries by references to differences of race. From a policy standpoint, the switch from colour to race has had both positive and negative consequences. From a sociological standpoint, it has made it more difficult to disaggregate the dimensions of social difference and to dispel the confusions engendered by ideas of racial difference. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the United States, the expression 'affirmative action' encompasses measures that grant a more or less flexible kind of preferential treatment in the allocation of scarce resources - jobs, university admissions, and government contracts - to the members of ascriptive groups formerly targeted for legal discrimination and currently underrepresented in positions of power and prestige. Whilst often justified as a way of compensating for past wrongs or of promoting cultural diversity, the policy is best understood as an instrument aimed at reducing the correlation between race and class. In this light, its ultimate goal would be to eradicate the specific disadvantage still produced by racial identification in US society, a disadvantage that arises from a set of negative expectations partly based on the existence of this correlation and from which no black individual is entirely insulated. A detailed presentation and defence of this alternative argument is provided, the empirical assumptions upon which it rests are identified, and some of its limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1980s and early 1990s witnessed a great deal of research on white ethnicity. Yet since this time, few systematic empirical studies of white ethnicity have emerged. This paper uses data from a recent nationally representative survey of Americans to (re)assess white ethnicity in the twenty-first century. Three primary areas are explored: (1) the pervasiveness and salience of ethnic claims among white Americans; (2) the social and demographic characteristics of self-identified white ethnics; and (3) the impact of white ethnic identity on political opinions and racial attitudes. We find that a smaller but significant number of white Americans claim ethnicity today and that distinguishing social characteristics of white ethnics still remain. Contrary to current prevailing theoretical formulations, however, these markers of distinction do not appear to be related to political or racial attitudes in any systematic way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of segmented assimilation is both the most important and most controversial idea to have emerged over the past twenty years from the literature on the children of immigrants in the US. This article traces the origins of the concept, attempts to unravel the controversy surrounding it and to show how the concept has evolved. We consider the major findings from the largest and most widely cited research studies about the children of immigrants in the US. We find that segmented assimilation has been used both simply to describe the diversity of educational and economic outcomes among the children of immigrants and as a typology to explain those outcomes. The typology has been the more controversial use and has undergone several alterations since its introduction. We conclude that the emphasis on national origins in both description and explanation should be replaced with a focus on social contexts and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva published an article in which he proposed a provocative thesis - he argued that the US system of race is beginning to resemble that of Latin America. Despite the attention received from the US side, there has been no response from scholars of race in Latin America. This article is a critical reply to Bonilla-Silva's Latin Americanization thesis. In the article, I move the debate forward by introducing a Latin American perspective. I begin by outlining and addressing various claims made by Bonilla-Silva regarding the Latin American system of race. I then discuss how his thesis is put to the empirical test and briefly comment on the model's ability to explain the future of race in the United States. I conclude with a discussion of how the racial terrain is rapidly changing in Latin America and the implications that this has for Bonilla-Silva's theory. Finally, I suggest ways in which the Latin Americanization thesis can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I analyse how Hispanic newcomers are becoming incorporated into the rural southern racial hierarchy during an early stage of immigration. I examine patterns in newcomers' (1) racial/ethnic identifications and (2) social interactions with whites and blacks, showing how and why they lend preliminary support to a black/nonblack colour line model, in which the central distinction separates the positions of people with African ancestry from all others. Hispanic newcomers, including many who are dark-skinned, poor, and undocumented, have come to perceive the social distance separating themselves from whites as more permeable than that separating themselves from blacks, and are engaging in distancing strategies that may reinforce this distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmented assimilation theorists posit that second-generation immigrants today are at risk of downward acculturation and socio-economic mobility, and that dense co-ethnic communities provide the greatest resistance. Drawing upon data from ethnographic interviews and non-participant observation at a Pentecostal church, this paper will suggest that American-origin religious institutions may provide shelter against downward mobility through 'religious optimism'. Using a race-gender framework to explain exit from gang lifestyle and acculturation into a group promoting mainstream American values, this paper will suggest that religious optimism may sometimes be infused with traditions from the black Protestant church, as well as inner-city stylistic expressions. Therefore, the first suggestion in this paper is that the segmented assimilation paradigm should not dichotomize the values of immigrant groups against those of native-born blacks and Latinos. The second suggestion in this paper is that segmented assimilation theorists should take into consideration that trajectories may shift in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, marriage serves as the point of entry into discussions about race, religion, and identity in American mosques. The experience of minority status in the US shapes the ways Muslim immigrants construct difference. The intersections of race, class, gender and religion emerge as Arab and South Asian Muslim Americans talk about interracial marriage and preferences for lighter-skinned mates. Muslim American children of immigrants test the boundaries of what constitutes an eligible spouse by drawing on religious sources that challenge their parents' ideologies of colour and racial prejudices. Islam serves as a common moral ground between generations that came of age in different cultures, creating a space for negotiating conflicting visions. Long after religion has faded as the cornerstone of social protest against racism in the US, Muslim youth in American mosques revive it in debates about race and colour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to open a dialogue about the use of two specific labels in the US (i.e. 'Chicanas' and 'Latinas'), with a special emphasis on how they are used in the US academy as both markers and identities. More specifically, this paper explores recent trends in the US academy by which women of Latin American descent are lumped together under the rubric Latinas, and in many cases assumed to be equivalent to Chicanas. Arguing that academia must learn to be more thoughtful when creating, defining and adopting categories, the article warns against recreating the very power dynamics we find in mainstream US society by way of these specific labels. Finally, 'So you are a mestiza' reminds its readers that, as a practice, social justice asks for a fundamental recognition of a culturally pluralist, democratic society. In this kind of society, histories must endure and multiple realities must be acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of assimilation tend to focus on whether or not members of a migrant group are adjusting to their new surroundings. This article inverts this focus, asking not how migrant groups adjust, but rather how migrant groups use the language of assimilation to explain generation gaps and other exigencies of migration. This inversion sheds light on the ways a migrant group's epistemological assumptions underlie their understandings of cultural identity, and shape how they might respond to dilemmas caused by migration. Building upon ethnographic fieldwork among Samoan migrants in the United States, the article explores how and why community workers use the rhetoric of assimilation to teach Samoan parents how to raise children in the US context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a study on racial discrimination of Asian Americans. The study explored two issues including how, in the current period of social change, Asian Americans view American society with regard to racial discrimination and the incidence of discrimination experienced, and what choices Asian Americans make in dealing with racial discrimination. The study confirmed that Asian Americans tend to use emotion-focused coping strategies to deal with racial discrimination. Such strategies involve cognitive re-conceptualization of problems, avoidance and optimistic comparisons In contrast, problem-focused coping aims at dealing with the problem itself. Additional influences on the coping responses used to deal with racial discrimination were also analyzed. The results support the hypo- thesis that traditional Asian-American culture values and the recognition of minority status tend to increase reliance on emotion-focused coping strategies. Furthermore, the study found that coping strategies were related to nationality and sex.