Latinidad in Black and White: How Latino Politics (Dis)Avow America's Racial Hierarchy

As an imposed term, Hispanics/Latinos – individuals who can trace their ancestry to Latin America and the Caribbean – can be of any race. While the common narrative is that Latinos occupy a space between White and Black, and scholarship calls for moving beyond the Black-White binary, some Latinos reify the Black-White binary. Political scientist Yalidy Matos will examine how U.S. Latinos have aligned with and/or complicated the color line in the U.S. and the political consequences of such alignment. With a focus on America’s racial status quo, Matos will investigate the following questions: 1) How does diversity among Latinos’ influence their position in America’s hierarchy? 2) What role does this positioning play in Latinos’ political behavior to avow or disavow the racial status quo?