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Since the late 1960s, a demographic shift has occurred in the United States as a result of a rapid increase in the number of Spanish-speaking immigrants, particularly from Latin American countries. Many Americans perceive the conspicuously rapid expansion of Latino residents in a racialized fashion. As a result, the numerical shift within the minority groups means that the Black-White dichotomy, a long-held referential framework, has lost much of its relevance in understanding and/or explaining ethno-racial relations in contemporary America. Additionally, Black immigrants from the British West Indies are among the many groups that have contributed to reformulating the racial and ethnic diversity of U.S. society since 1965. In this article, I will cover two groups originating from the Western Hemisphere: Latino and West Indian immigrants. I would like to take this opportunity to search for a new conceptual or theoretical ground for understanding the interplay of race, ethnicity, and nation by discussing these two groups that have rarely been dealt with simultaneously.
KEYWORDS: citizenship, immigration, Latinos, race, West Indians
The 2000 census shows that the "Spanish/ Hispanic/ Latino" population has officially become the largest minority group in the United States, with its numerical share of 12.5 percent as compared to 12.3 percent for the African American population. This demographic change was a result of a rapid increase in the number of Spanish-speaking immigrants, particularly since the late 1960s, from Latin American countries located on the continent. "Spanish/Hispanic/Latino" is not technically a racial category. However, since many Americans perceive it as such, the conspicuously rapid expansion of Latino residents has tended to be grasped in a racialized fashion. As a result, the numerical shift within the minority groups means that the Black-White dichotomy, a long-held referential framework, has lost much of its relevance in understanding and/or explaining ethno-racial relations in contemporary America.
The rapid increase of Latino populations has been frequently connected to-or sometimes equated with-the large-scale flow of undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The "undocumented immigrant problem," a social issue hotly debated, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, has often contained racial overtones. The "Browning of America," a racist visual metaphor suggesting a rapid expansion of the Latino population, due to the extensive inflow of undocumented immigrants from south of the border, has...