"'People of Color?' Exploring immigrants' attitudes towards Blacks in Los Angeles"

a presentation by

Frank Lao Samson

Thursday, January 27, 2005
Board Room, Stanford Humanities Center, 4:00-6:00 PM

Abstract: Using the Los Angeles subset of the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, this study examines factors that influence White, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants' racial attitudes towards Blacks, particularly stereotypes about welfare dependence, intelligence, and amicability. This study explores the effects of education, national ancestry, and social networks on immigrants' racial attitudes. The key findings indicate that neither education nor a black-inclusive social network have significant effects on immigrants' negative stereotypes about Blacks' amicability, welfare dependence, and intelligence. Under conditions of negative, intractable Asian and Hispanic immigrant attitudes towards Blacks, the utility of the pre-1965 assumptions behind the political identity "people of color" may be brought into question.

Frank Lao Samson is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology where he studies racism, group-based prejudices and inequalities, economic sociology, political sociology, and social movements.