Online First: ¿Eres Amigo o Enemigo? Contextual Determinants of Latinos’ Perceived Competition with African-Americans

¿Eres Amigo o Enemigo? Contextual Determinants of Latinos’ Perceived Competition with African-Americans

1. Tony E. Carey Jr.1
2. Valerie Martinez-Ebers1
3. Tetsuya Matsubayashi2
4. Philip Paolino1

1. ¹University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
2. ²Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan

1. Valerie Martinez-Ebers, University of North Texas, 1121 Union Circle, Wooten Hall 125, Denton, TX 76203, USA. Email: valmartinez@UNT.EDU

Abstract

Prior research has examined how racial and socioeconomic environments influence the racial attitudes of Whites and Blacks. We extend this line of research to explore how local context influences Latinos’ perceived competition with African-Americans. We use the 2006 Latino National Survey and a newly appended contextual data set. We find that having more Black neighbors heightens Latinos’ perceived competition with Blacks, but only when Latinos are economically vulnerable. The presence of African-Americans within Latinos’ neighborhoods is a necessary but insufficient condition for increasing their perceived competition with Blacks; Latinos’ perceived threat is shaped by thecombined effect of the neighborhood racial composition and their group’s economic status.

• racial–ethnic relations
 
• Latino politics
 
• political behavior