Racist Policy Shocks in the United States and Latino Elites’ Identities and Actions: Prop 187, SB 1070, and Trump’s Racism

This article draws on interviews conducted with 65 upper-middle class and upper-class Latinos in the business and corporate sector to investigate how racist and exclusionary immigration policy shocks at the state and federal level in the United States—such as Prop 187 in California, SB1070 in Arizona in the 2010s and Trump’s criminalizing rhetoric and immigration policies before and during his first term—shape the racial/ethnic identification and philanthropic activities of Latino economic elites. I argue that well-publicized racialized policies, what I refer to “racist policy shocks,” have enduring effects because they shock systems at multiple levels of society that ripple through institutions and everyday life and across time. Racist policy shocks can result in more than changes in public opinion, a thickening of ethnic identity, and political protest in the moment that groups are being targeted—they can also have long-lasting impacts on racial/ethnic identity, reinforce ethnic solidarity, and spur people to economic action and ethnoracial uplift. I argue that individual level factors rooted in ethnorace and class intersections—such as growing up in low-income communities and experiences with discrimination—combine with an exclusionary macro level context—such as negative political rhetoric that constantly demonizes Latinos as a threat—to crystallize a sense of ethnic solidarity and responsibility for the broader Latino community.