On the (Racial) Border: Expressed Race, Reflected Race, and the US-Mexico Border Context Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • In this era of growing immigration and debates about the U.S.-Mexico Border, the authors tackle a question that is growing in importance as the Border is at the forefront of national debate: Do people (White or Latinx) who believe that they are seen as Latinx experience more community division on the basis of proximity to the Border? The authors use data from the 2015 Texas Diversity Survey to examine the experience of racialization for people living in different social environments. The authors find that Latinxs who live closer the U.S.-Mexico Border are more likely to believe that they are perceived by others as Latinx, demonstrating how racialization is contextual and variable across space. The authors show that these differences are consequential for a sense of community division: Latinxs feel more community division when they live closer to the Border and believe that strangers see them as Latinx, even after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, gender, age, and characteristics of the place where respondents live. In sum, the authors find important relationships between reflected race, proximity to the Border, and the construction of community division.

published proceedings

  • SOCIOLOGY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY

altmetric score

  • 1

author list (cited authors)

  • Gonlin, V., Jones, N. E., & Campbell, M. E.

citation count

  • 4

complete list of authors

  • Gonlin, Vanessa||Jones, Nicole E||Campbell, Mary E

publication date

  • April 2020