Values and prejudice in American opinion about immigration: A critical dialog

Afric a n Am e ric a n s , Im m igration , a n d th e Li m its of C itizen sh ipThe premise at the heart of American While Black is that blacks' marginalization in American social and political life has generated a distinct and nuanced point of view about immigration.In Niambi Michele Carter's words, "what blacks seek is full inclusion in the public sphere, and immigration represents a potential barrier to that inclusion" (p.23).This exclusionary tendency is meaningfully distinct from the kind of "anti-immigrant sentiment" that is, as we understand it, mainly the domain of bigoted whites: "rather, it is a rational response to the myriad ways in which white supremacy has coopted those who are not black into the racial matrix in such a way as to keep blacks at the nadir of the racial order" (ibid.)On this view, anti-immigrant sentiment among blacks is not really about immigrants at all; rather, it is about hostility to a national identity that privileges white supremacy.This line of reasoning yields the following expectations: first, that "blacks hold nativist sentiment" (p.147), although the question of compared to what or who is left obscure.More on this later.The second is that patriotism should dampen anti-immigrant sentiment because they are ultimately loyal to American values.The third is that blacks who believe American culture and Americans' job prospects to be "threatened" by immigration should express more nativism as a result.The fourth is that variables capturing blacks' unique position in the racial