Chicano, Hispanic, or Mexican American: What's in a Name?

Abstract

This study examined the impact of three ethnic labels—Chicanos, Hispanics, and Mexican Americans—on the stereotyping behavior of a sample of white university undergraduates. Using the Katz and Braly (1933) paradigm, two hypotheses were tested. First, it was expected that “Chicanos” would receive a larger percentage of subjects selecting negative stereotypes than would “Hispanics” or “Mexican Americans” (Mexican Americans were expected to be stereotyped most positively). Second, the rate of stereotyping behavior was expected to be affected in similar ways. Results gave modest support for the first hypothesis—Chicanos were more often viewed as ignorant and cruel, for example—but only obtained nonsignificant trends for the second hypothesis. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of ethnic labels in racial attitude development and maintenance and of the need for additional research.

Race/ethnicity and perceptions of the police: a comparison of White, Black, Asian and Hispanic Americans

“…For Hispanic Americans, despite some positive stereotypes (e.g. strong family, values of salvation), there are many negative perceptions viewing them as lazy, ignorant, less intelligent and more violent and rebellious (Fairchild andCozens 1981, Jackson et al 1996). Some early stereotypes of Asian Americans were very negative depicting them as sneaky, obsequious, lacking in manhood and inassimilable to the mainstream culture (Gyory 1998), but the recent model minority thesis takes a sharp break from these early stereotypes, portraying Asian Americans as 'hardworking, intelligent, and successful' (Civil Rights Report, cited in Chang 1993).…”

Implicit Identification with Academic Achievement among Latino College Students: The Role of Ethnic Identity and Significant Others

“…We hypothesized that the self-academic achievement association (academic self-concept) should be a multiplicative function of the self-ethnicity association (ethnic identification) and the ethnicity-academic achievement association (ethnic stereotypes). Although no systematic investigation has been conducted on beliefs about the academic abilities of Latinos, there is some evidence that Latinos are stereotyped as being less intelligent than Caucasians (Fairchild & Cozens, 1981;Weyant, 2005). Based on these findings, we expected that Latinos would be implicitly conceived of as low academic achievers in comparison to Caucasians.…”

Hispanic/Latino Identity Labels: An Examination of Cultural Values and Personal Experiences

“…A limited number of studies have attempted to explain the meaning and origin of Hispanic=Latino identity labels (Hayes-Bautista & Chapa, 1987;Rinderle, 2006) and the effect and implications of their use (Fairchild & Cozens, 1981;Mirandé & Tanno, 1993a;Oboler, 1992). What is lacking is a better understanding of how Hispanic=Latino ethnic identity is related to identity label use.…”