Who belongs in America? Latinxs’ skin tones, perceived discrimination, and opposition to multicultural policies.

Abstract

Objective: Consequences of colorism are well documented, yet little is known about its relationship with political views of racial/ethnic minorities. Although a very small literature found no evidence that skin tone shapes political attitudes of Latinx Americans, the present study was the first to extend this to immigration and language policy preferences. Because support for public policies is an important mechanism through which inequality is either reduced or reproduced, this filled an important gap in the literature on colorism and political behavior. Method: Using binary or ordered logistic regression, skin tone, perceived discrimination, and demographic characteristics were examined as predictors of Latinxs' policy preferences for U.S. border security and/or mandated use of English. Several probability samples were analyzed: one national sample (N ϭ 430), as well as other national (N ϭ 349, mean age 41), regional (N ϭ 256, mean ages 36 -40), and nationally representative samples (N ϭ 8,065, mean ages 32-35). Results: Relative to their counterparts, the lightest-skinned Latinx women were more tolerant of restrictive policies-tighter border security and a preference for English as the only official language. Among Latinx men, medium-skinned subgroups reported the most unfavorable opinions about a U.S. border wall policy whereas lighter-skinned men were less opposed to this policy. Conclusions: Findings suggested that skin tone biases may be tied to men's engagement on border security issues and women's support for language and border policies. Therefore, colorism may be implicated in important processes that shape American politics and Latinx public opinion. Public Significance StatementThe following article examines whether U.S. Latinxs with varying skin tones differed in their endorsement of immigration and language public policies. Across four independent samples, lighterskinned Latinxs (particularly women) were more tolerant of restrictive immigration policies (e.g., tighter borders) and restrictive language policies (English as the only official U.S. language). Whereas previous inequality research found that lighter-skinned Latinxs had socioeconomic advantages over darker-skinned counterparts, the present study extends this to political behavior and finds that some lighter-skinned Latinxs also endorsed policy positions that reinforced inequality.

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