“An Intersectional Analysis of Racial Inequality: The Case of U.S. Latinx and Self-Reported Ancestry”

Discussant: Dr. René Flores, University of Chicago, Department of Sociology

Most studies of racial-ethnic inequality rely on state-defined racial and ethnic categories and assume that these official categories reflect relatively homogeneous groups. This study shows that these conventional assumptions can fundamentally skew our understanding of stratification patterns. Focusing on the case of U.S. Latinos, we examine simultaneous effects of race, ethnicity, and ancestry on labor market and educational outcomes using representative data from the American Community Survey. Results indicate that White Latinos in the aggregated population statistic have among the poorest outcomes, trailing both Black Latinos and Asian Latinos. Yet after accounting for ancestral variations within racial categories, we find that White Latinos reporting Spanish, European, and South American ancestries exhibit some of the most favorable socioeconomic outcomes across all groups, while White Latinos who report Mexican and other Central American ancestries report among the lowest. These results underscore the importance of intersectional analyses that consider the heterogeneity of Latinos. We advance Critical Intersectionality Praxis as an ontology, epistemology and methodological approach that can illuminate critical differences and inequalities within the U.S. Latino population and beyond. Our results call for a reevaluation of the assumptions underlying racial and ethnic constructs and demonstrate a critical quantitative framework for studies of racial-ethnic-ancestry inequality.