Latino Immigrants Come to U.S. With Negative Stereotypes of Black Americans, Study Shows

Mon Jul 10 07:20:32 2006 Pacific Time
Latino Immigrants Come to U.S. With Negative Stereotypes of Black Americans, Study Shows

NOTE TO EDITORS: A copy of the study is available here in the August issue of the Journal of Politics

DURHAM, N.C., July 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- Latinos bring
negative stereotypes about black Americans to the U.S. when they
immigrate and identify more with whites than blacks, according to a
study of the changing political dynamics in the South.

The research also found that living in the same neighborhoods
with black Americans seems to reinforce, rather than reduce, the
negative stereotypes Latino immigrants have of blacks, said Paula D.
McClain, a Duke University political science professor who is the
study's lead author.

McClain said the findings are significant because the South
has the largest population of blacks in the U.S. and has been defined
more than other regions along a black-white divide. How Latino
immigrants relate to blacks and whites -- and how those groups relate
to Latinos -- has implications for the social and political dynamic
of the region, she said.

"Given the increasing number of Latino immigrants in the
South and the possibility that over time their numbers might rival or
even surpass black Americans in the region, if large portions of
Latino immigrants maintain negative attitudes of black Americans,
where will this leave blacks?" the researchers wrote. "Will blacks
find that they must not only make demands on whites for continued
progress, but also mount a fight on another front against Latinos?"

In an interview, McClain added: "We're actually pretty
depressed about a lot of our findings."

The findings will be published in the August issue of the
Journal of Politics, which is already available online
(http://journalofpolitics.org/art68_3.html#a7). The study was funded
by the Ford Foundation.

The study's co-authors are Niambi M. Carter, Victoria M.
DeFrancesco Soto and Monique L. Lyle of Duke; Jeffrey D. Grynaviski
of the University of Chicago; Shayla C. Nunnally of the University of
Connecticut; Thomas J. Scotto of West Virginia University; J. Alan
Kendrick of St. Augustine's College; and Gerald F. Lackey and Kendra
Davenport Cotton of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The findings are based on a 2003 survey, conducted in English
and Spanish, of 500 Durham, N.C., residents, including 160 whites,
151 blacks and 167 Latinos. Durham was chosen for the pilot study
because North Carolina has the fastest-growing Latino population in
the country, and because Durham's black population includes residents
at all socioeconomic levels.

The goal was to understand how Latino immigration -- a
population largely new to the South in the past decade -- affects
group dynamics in the South, which has historically been defined by
the relationship between blacks and whites. The survey focused on a
range of social and political activities and attitudes, including
stereotypes each group holds about the other two.

Researchers found that 58.9 percent of Latino immigrants --
most Latinos in Durham are from Mexico -- feel that few or almost no
blacks are hard-working. About one-third, or 32.5 percent, of Latino
immigrants reported they feel few or almost no blacks are easy to get
along with. More than half of the Latino immigrants, or 56.9 percent,
feel that few or almost no blacks could be trusted.

Within the Latino immigrant population, researchers found,
more-educated Latinos have significantly fewer negative stereotypes,
and men have significantly more negative stereotypes.

"One might think that the cause of the Latinos' negative
opinions about blacks is the transmission of prejudice from Southern
whites, but our data do not support this notion," the researchers wrote.

White residents in Durham actually have a more positive view
of blacks, leading researchers to conclude that Latinos' negative
views were not adopted from whites. In the survey, only 9.3 percent
of whites surveyed indicate that few blacks are hard-working; only
8.4 percent believe few or almost no blacks are easy to get along
with; and only 9.6 percent feel that few or almost no blacks can be trusted.

The researchers also noted that if whites were the primary
influence on Latinos' stereotypes, Latinos would become more
prejudiced the longer they are in the U.S.; the findings do not
support that notion. The researchers also investigated whether
Latinos might be reciprocating the prejudice they sense from blacks;
again, the survey did not support this theory.

The survey showed that blacks view Latinos much more
favorably than Latinos view blacks. About 72 percent of blacks feel
most or almost all Latinos are hard-working, and 42.8 percent say
most or almost all Latinos are easy to get along with. About
one-third, or 32.6 percent, of blacks feel few or no Latinos could be trusted.

WHAT CAUSES THE LATINOS' STEREOTYPES?

The researchers concluded that Latino immigrants may bring
their feelings about the racial hierarchies in their own countries
with them to the U.S. The researchers noted that previous studies on
race and Latin America, especially Mexico, identify blacks as
"representing the bottom rungs of society."

The study also looked at the racial group with whom Latino
immigrants most identify. More than 78 percent feel they have the
most in common with whites, and 52.8 percent said they have the least
in common with blacks.

Whites do not feel the same connection to Latino immigrants.
Nearly half of whites -- 47.5 percent -- reported they have the least
in common with Latinos. Just 22.2 percent of whites see themselves as
having the most in common with Latinos, while 45.9 percent say they
have the most in common with blacks.

Among blacks, respondents are split -- 49.6 percent say
blacks have the most in common with Latinos, while 45.5 percent say
they have the most in common with whites.

The study did find that several factors do reduce
stereotypes. For instance, when Latinos have a sense of "linked fate"
with other Latinos -- or the sense that what happens to other Latinos
affects them -- they tend to have fewer stereotypes against blacks.

"The finding that these negative attitudes are modulated by a
sense of linked fate suggests possibilities for the formation of
connections to black Americans in the absence of the presence of an
extant American Latino community," the researchers wrote.

The researchers also noted that education and some types of
social interaction with blacks can reduce negative stereotypes among
Latinos. However, one type of social interaction -- living in the
same neighborhood -- "pushes them farther away from blacks and closer
to whites," the study said.

"These new Latino immigrants may behave in ways similar to
the Chinese in Mississippi in the mid-19th century, and the Cubans in
Miami in the mid-20th century -- identification with whites,
distancing themselves from blacks, and feeling no responsibility to
rectify the continuing inequalities of black Americans," the
researchers wrote.

EXPANDING THE STUDY

McClain noted that more research needs to be done to fully
understand these findings. Her research team plans to expand the
study to determine whether the Durham findings mirror Latino-black
relations in other Southern cities. In addition to re-surveying
Durham residents, her group plans to study Memphis, Tenn.;
Greensboro, N.C.; Greenville, S.C.; and Dalton, Ga. She recently
received a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to survey three of
the cities and will seek funding from other sources to fund the
remaining two cities.

While the topic requires additional research, McClain said
the initial findings indicate that community leaders in cities with
burgeoning Latino immigrant populations must begin thinking through
how the different groups get along.

"Black and Latino leaders need to recognize that there is a
tremendous potential for conflict and that Latino immigrant attitudes
toward black Americans may be a part of that," she said. "There is
also a potential for a backlash against Latino immigrants from black
Americans."

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CONTACTS: Paula McClain can be reached for comment at
919-660-4303 or pmcclain@duke.edu. For media assistance, contact
Kelly Gilmer, Duke University Office of News & Communications,
919-681-8065, kelly.gilmer@duke.edu.