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USING the RACE CARD: CONSTRUCTING REVERSE-RACISM WITHIN the ANTI-IMMIGRATION DEBATE a Thesis Submitted to Kent State Universit

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USING the RACE CARD: CONSTRUCTING REVERSE-RACISM WITHIN the ANTI-IMMIGRATION DEBATE a Thesis Submitted to Kent State Universit USING THE RACE CARD: CONSTRUCTING REVERSE-RACISM WITHIN THE ANTI-IMMIGRATION DEBATE A thesis submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts By Karen M. Martinez May, 2017 Thesis written by Karen M. Martinez B.A., California State University Bakersfield, 2013 M.A., Kent State University, 2017 Approved by Tiffany Taylor , Advisor, Department of Sociology Richard Serpe , Chair, Department of Sociology James Blank , Dean, College of Arts and Sciences TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................4 III. METHODS .............................................................................................................................9 Data Collection and Sample....................................................................................................9 Analysis.................................................................................................................................12 IV. FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................13 Affirmative Action ................................................................................................................14 Reverse-Racism as a Defense Mechanism: They're the REAL Racists ..............................18 Politics, Reverse-Racism, and the "Race Card'.....................................................................22 V. DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................25 VI. CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................28 VII. REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................30 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to start off by individually thanking the members of my amazing thesis committee who made this learning experience as painless and smooth as possible. First, I would like to thank Dr. Katrina Bloch for sharing a similar research interest and for allowing me to use her data. Her knowledge of the topic and data facilitated the coding and analysis process which was greatly appreciated. Secondly, I would like to thank Dr. Nicole Rousseau for always showing me compassion and understanding throughout this stressful process but also for encouraging me to think about the policy and real-life implications of my research. Lastly, I would especially like to thank my thesis chair, Dr. Tiffany Taylor, for her constant helpful feedback and guidance throughout the entire process, as well as her patience and motivation. She never gave up on me or this project which I am extremely grateful for. My success would not have been possible without them, which highly reflects what great mentors they are. I would also like to thank my friends and, more importantly, ‘mi familia, porque sin ellos y su apoyo esto nunca seria posible, los amo mucho.’ iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (Emma Lazaruz 1883) Written upon the Statue of Liberty, these words have come to characterize the United States as a diverse melting pot of cultures due to its long history of immigration. Yet, attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policy have been widely contested and debated, even in recent years. People’s concerns with immigration rise with each new major wave of immigration into the United States. These fluctuations in perceptions and attitudes towards immigrants in the United States are often related to labor and resources. Historically, immigrants have been a source of cheap labor. Economic growth and expansion in the United Stated necessitated labor, creating the perfect opportunity for the government to entice immigrants with promises of employment and opportunities (Massey 1995). Yet, when resources and work ran out, immigration into the United States was restricted and limited. Patterns such as these have occurred throughout history like during the expansion out west with Irish immigrants, or the Gold Rush with Chinese immigrants. The Irish, although hated and discriminated against because of their catholic faith, over time were able to more easily assimilate because of their physical whiteness unlike many other racial and ethnic immigrant groups who experienced much harsher xenophobia and persecution (Bonilla-Silva and 1 Glover 2004; Papsun and Bangura 2016). Becoming “American” is harder for darker-skinned immigrants in general because of the racial hierarchy. The racial hierarch has helped create a spectrum of acceptance where white-passing individuals are able to enjoy the benefits of white privilege, because they themselves have light-skin privilege. White-passing immigrants, such as the Irish and Italians, were granted “honorary white” status, thus, making it easier for them to assimilate (Bonilla-Silva et al. 2004). This further enforces the white racial frame that makes ‘American’ synonymous with white (Feagin 2013). In comparison, after the Gold Rush and the expansion of the railway out West, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusionary Act to bar further Chinese immigrants from entering the country. Clearly not all immigrant groups in America are treated the same. Most acts that put restrictions and limits to the amount of immigrants allowed entry into the country were typically aimed at racial and ethnic immigrants from Latin America, the Middle-East, and Africa. This is because immigrants of color pose a demographic threat when it comes to the dominance of whiteness in America (Papsun et al. 2016). Today, concerns about immigration tend to focus more broadly on immigrants, specifically undocumented immigrants, coming from Mexico because of the perceived ‘Latino Threat’ (Chavez 2013). This threat stems from the conspiracy theory of Reconquista that states that Mexicans are trying to invade and reconquer lands such as California, Arizona, Texas, and Nevada that were taken by the US as part of Mexico’s terms of defeat at the end of the Mexican- American War of 1848 (Chavez 2013). Anti-immigration rhetoric, therefore, tends to largely target Mexican immigrants due to this fear of threat that is heighted by the close geographic proximity of Mexico to the United States. Another main reason why Latinos are the target for a 2 lot of the anti-immigrant rhetoric in the US is due to perceptions of their unwillingness or inability to assimilate and fully integrate within US society. One of the biggest and most compelling arguments made by anti-illegal immigration proponents is that undocumented workers are diverting resources out of the United States back to their home countries. While anti-immigrant groups see this as an issue, the main basis for their anger is rooted in their belief that undocumented immigrants are stealing jobs that should be going to US citizens. These sentiments are further exasperated during times of economic recession and high unemployment. Yet, immigrants—both documented and undocumented—are working low-paying jobs without benefits and still manage to contribute both as consumers and taxpayers into the US economy (Knoll 2013; Ward 2016). In this thesis, I argue that relying on this argument to support anti-immigration rhetoric is just a smokescreen cloaked in colorblind ideology to de-racialize the issue of immigration. In the following section, I will outline some of the prominent literature on colorblindness and the de-racialization of immigration. 3 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW The literature on immigrants and immigration typically focuses on three things: (1) the processes of assimilation and acculturation, (2) perceptions and attitudes towards immigrants and (3) their economic impact. Yet, very little of the literature focuses on the role of racism in explaining strict immigration policies, nativists’ attitudes and xenophobia, and how this applies mostly to non-white, non-European immigrants. The reason for this is that current immigration policy in the United States operates within a white racial frame (Feagin 2013). The concept of ‘race’ in the United States is not a transfixed concept. According to Omi and Winant (2014) race is a socially constructed identity where racial categories are determined by social, economic, and political forces. The historical development of race is something that is fluid and dynamic (Doane and Bonilla-Silva 2003; Omi et al. 2014; Winant 2014). This is important in relation to how most Americans have come to understand and view race in the United States. It is no secret that the US has had a long and sordid history when it comes to race relations. Nearly 300 years of slavery and over half a century of government sanctioned segregation during the Jim Crow era established that overt forms of racism existed. This type of racist ideology made it so that segregation was legal and that Black Americans were treated worse than second class citizens. In the 1960s many believed that the Civil Rights
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