The Diversity Paradox : Immigration and the Color Line in Twenty-First Century America

African Americans grappled with Jim Crow segregation until it was legally overturned in the 1960s. In subsequent decades, the country witnessed a new wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America—forever changing the face of American society and making it more racially diverse than ever before. In The Diversity Paradox, authors Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean take these two poles of American collective identity—the legacy of slavery and immigration—and ask if today's immigrants are destined to become racialized minorities akin to African Americans or if their incorporation into U.S. society will more closely resemble that of their European predecessors. They also tackle the vexing question of whether America's new racial diversity is helping to erode the tenacious black/white color line. The Diversity Paradox uses population-based analyses and in-depth interviews to examine patterns of intermarriage and multiracial identification among Asians, Latinos, and African Americans. Lee and Bean analyze where the color line—and the economic and social advantage it demarcates—is drawn today and on what side these new arrivals fall. They show that Asians and Latinos with mixed ancestry are not constrained by strict racial categories. Racial status often shifts according to situation. Individuals can choose to identify along ethnic lines or as white, and their decisions are rarely questioned by outsiders or institutions. These groups also intermarry at higher rates, which is viewed as part of the process of becoming'American'and a form of upward social mobility. African Americans, in contrast, intermarry at significantly lower rates than Asians and Latinos. Further, multiracial blacks often choose not to identify as such and are typically perceived as being black only—underscoring the stigma attached to being African American and the entrenchment of the'one-drop'rule. Asians and Latinos are successfully disengaging their national origins from the concept of race—like European immigrants before them—and these patterns are most evident in racially diverse parts of the country. For the first time in 2000, the U.S. Census enabled multiracial Americans to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. Eight years later, multiracial Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States. For many, these events give credibility to the claim that the death knell has been sounded for institutionalized racial exclusion. The Diversity Paradox is an extensive and eloquent examination of how contemporary immigration and the country's new diversity are redefining the boundaries of race. The book also lays bare the powerful reality that as the old black/white color line fades a new one may well be emerging—with many African Americans still on the other side. African Americans grappled with Jim Crow segregation until it was legally overturned in the 1960s. In subsequent decades, the country witnessed a new wave of immigration from Asia and Latin Americaforever changing the face of American society and making it more racially diverse than ever before. In The Diversity Paradox , authors Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean take these two poles of American collective identitythe legacy of slavery and immigrationand ask if todays immigrants are destined to become racialized minorities akin to African Americans or if their incorporation into U.S. society will more closely resemble that of their European predecessors. They also tackle the vexing question of whether Americas new racial diversity is helping to erode the tenacious black/white color line. The Diversity Paradox uses population-based analyses and in-depth interviews to examine patterns of intermarriage and multiracial identification among Asians, Latinos, and African Americans. Lee and Bean analyze where the color lineand the economic and social advantage it demarcatesis drawn today and on what side these new arrivals fall. They show that Asians and Latinos with mixed ancestry are not constrained by strict racial categories. Racial status often shifts according to situation. Individuals can choose to identify along ethnic lines or as white, and their decisions are rarely questioned by outsiders or institutions. These groups also intermarry at higher rates, which is viewed as part of the process of becoming American and a form of upward social mobility. African Americans, in contrast, intermarry at significantly lower rates than Asians and Latinos. Further, multiracial blacks often choose not to identify as such and are typically perceived as being black onlyunderscoring the stigma attached to being African American and the entrenchment of the one-drop rule. Asians and Latinos are successfully disengaging their national origins from the concept of racelike European immigrants before themand these patterns are most evident in racially diverse parts of the country. For the first time in 2000, the U.S. Census enabled multiracial Americans to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. Eight years later, multiracial Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States. For many, these events give credibility to the claim that the death knell has been sounded for institutionalized racial exclusion. The Diversity Paradox is an extensive and eloquent examination of how contemporary immigration and the countrys new diversity are redefining the boundaries of race. The book also lays bare the powerful reality that as the old black/white color line fades a new one may well be emergingwith many African Americans still on the other side. Title Page, Copyright Page Contents About the Authors Acknowledgments Part 1. Historical Background, Theoretical Framework, and Sociodemographic Context 1. Introduction: Immigration and the Color Line in America 2. Theoretical Perspetives on Color Lines in the United States 3. What Is This Person's Race? The Census and the Construction of Racial Categories 4. Immigration and the Geography of the New Ethnoracial Diversity Part 2. Individual Experiences of Diversity: From Multieraciality to Multiracial Identification 5. The Cultural Boundaries of Ethnoracial Status and Intermarriage 6. What About the Children? Interracial Families and Ethnoracial Identification 7. Who Is Multiracial? The Cultural Reproduction of the One-Drop Rule 8. From Racial to Ethnic Status: Claiming Ethnicity Through Culture Part 3. the Empirical and Policy Significance of Diversity: Generalization and Paradox 9. Ethnoracial Diversity, Minority-Group Threat, and Boundary Dissolution: Clarifying the Diversity Paradox 10. Conclusion: The Diversity Paradox and Beyond (Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est la Meme Chose) Appendix: Methodological Appendix Notes References Index "Using an impressive arsenal of quantitative and qualitative data, Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean offer an authoritative analysis of the color line in American society, revealing a remarkable paradox at the heart of contemporary intergroup relations. Although immigration has dramatically increased the share of Asians and Latinos, and patterns of intermarriage and self-identification reveal greater racial and ethnic mixing than ever before, one divide continues to stand out: that between African Americans and everyone else. Their careful analysis challenges both glib assertions of a post-racial order as well as pronouncements about the immutability of America's racial categories. Racial meanings are clearly changing, but whether they will change enough to overcome the age-old `American Dilemma' remains to be seen."--Douglas S. Massey, Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, the Woodrow Wilson School African Americans grapples with Jim Crow segregation until it was legally overturned in the 1960s. In subsequent decades, the country witnessed a new wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America, forever changing the face of American society and making it more racially diverse than ever before. This book takes the legacy of these two poles of American collective identity- the legacies of slavery and immigration- and ask if today's immigrants are destined to become racialized minorities akin to African Americans or if their incorporation into U.S. society will more closely resemble that of their European predecessors. They also tackle the vexing question of whether America's new racial diversity is helping to erode the tenacious black/white color line. -- Book Jacket African Americans grappled with Jim Crow segregation until it was legally overturned in the 1960s. In subsequent decades, the country witnessed a new wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America, forever changing the face of American society and making it more racially diverse than ever before. In The Diversity Paradox, authors Jennifer Lee and Frank D. Bean take these two poles of American collective identity--the legacy of slavery and immigration--and ask if today's immigrants are destined to become racialized minorities akin to African Americans or if their incorporation into U.S. society will more closely resemble that of their European predecessors. They also tackle the vexing question of whether America's new racial diversity is helping to ero --Book Jacket "Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean's comprehensive, data-filled, and insightful analysis adds considerably to our understanding of multiracial life in America. The Diversity Paradox is a very welcome and greatly needed book, for the study of multiracials will be high on immigration, race, and ethnicity research agendas in the coming years. The book's report about the country's ethnoracial present and future should be of special interest to students. They will be spending their adult lives in an America marked by the paradoxical treatment of diverse nonwhite people about which Lee and Bean write."--Herbert J. Gans, Robert S. Lynd Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Columbia University "Jennifer Lee and Frank D. Bean have produced a penetrating analysis of how the new immigration and a rapidly growing multiracial population have complicated America's racial and ethnic hierarchies. Through a combination of demographic analysis and in-depth interviews, they reveal a remarkable blurring of racialized boundaries for some groups in many places, while they also detect the stubborn persistence of a color line. The Diversity Paradox challenges old notions of race and ethnicity and brings unusual clarity to understanding a changing America."--Edward Telles, professor of sociology, Princeton University "The study of multiracial identification is both timely and theoretically significant. Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean combine their distinct sensibility and nuanced sociological imagination with rigorous application of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to make a seminal contribution to research on interracial dynamics that will forever challenge our understanding of race in twenty-first century America."--Min Zhou, professor of sociology and Asian American studies, UCLA