THE LATIN AMERICANIZATION OF RACE RELATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

In: Du bois review: social science research on race, Band 9, Heft 1, S. 227-233

Abstract

Much has been written lately in both the popular and academic press about the "Browning" of America and the changing nature of race and ethnic relations in the United States. This has been largely the result of the precipitous increase in the Latino population and its profound change on the demographic landscape in the United States. For example, the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2010) has shown the Latino population grew from 35.3 million in 2000 to over 50 million in 2010 (p. 3). The Latino population now represents 16% of the total U.S. population and has surpassed African Americans as the largest racial-ethnic population at the turn of the century. Recent demographic projections calculate that by 2050 the Latino population will increase to an estimated 128 million or 29% of the national total. As Rumbaut (2009) writes, in that year it will exceed the combined total of all other racial minorities (primarily African American and Asian) in the United States (p. 17).