Do You See What I See?: Observed Race and the Ascription of American Identity

ABSTRACT Objective National belonging in the United States involves both assertive processes, individuals’ claims to American identity, and ascriptive processes, the degree to which one is seen as an American. Racial schemas provide a framework to interpret the ways we associate observed race with national identity. How does the symbiotic relationship between race and national identity associate with recognition of others as American? Methods I draw from an original survey called the Race—Ascription, Assertion, and Contextual Experiences Study ( n = 1811) that includes unique picture experiments that provided respondents with pictures of faces to interrogate the association between observed race and recognition as “American.” Results I find a strong association between being observed as White and ascription as “American,” revealing that those observed as Latinx or Asian are seen as less “American” than others. Rigid conceptions of American identity associate with perceiving non‐Whites as “less American,” although in opposite effect for some groups such as in assessing the Americanness of Black individuals. Conclusion Ascriptive processes in which observed race and rigid conceptualization of American identity shape recognition of others as “American” does so along racial lines that includes some and excludes others. Thus, being seen as “American” is not a race‐neutral process, sometimes determined by just one look.