LATINO COMMUNITIES EMERGING VOICES Political, Social, Cultural, and Legal Issues Edited by Antoinette Sedillo Lopez University of New Mexico A ROUTLEDGE SERIES 229x152 HB LATINO COMMUNITIES: EMERGING VOICES Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, General Editor CHICANO PROFESSIONALS PuERTO RICAN NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF Culture, Conflict, and Identity THE PuERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE PARTY Tamis Hoover Renteria A Content Analysis of Three Elections Maria Cristina Santana RESISTING GENTRIFICATION AND DISPLACEMENT COLEGIO CESAR CHAVEZ, 1973-1983 Voices of Puerto Rican Women of the A Chicano Struggle for Educational Barrio Self-Determination Vicky Muniz Carlos S. Maldonado CHICANO EMPOWERMENT AND LATINOS IN ETHNIC ENCLAVES BILINGUAL EDUCATION Immigrant Workers and the Movimiento Politics in Crystal City, Competition for Jobs Texas Stephanie Bohon Armando L. Trujillo TELLING OUR STORIES CREATING A LATINO IDENTITY IN THE The Lives of Midwestern Latinas NATION'S CAPITAL Theresa Barron McKeagney The Latino Festival Olivia Cadaval DOMINICANS IN NEW YORK CITY Power From the Margins THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LATINO GAY Milagros Ricourt IDENTITY Bernardo C. Garcia LATINO NATIONAL POLITICAL COALmONS Struggles and Challenges LATINO FICTION AND THE MODERNIST David Rodriguez IMAGINATION Literature of the Borderlands John S. Christie CREATING TROPICAL YANKEES Social Science Textbooks and U.S. Ideological Control in Puerto Rico, VOICES OF GUATEMALAN WOMEN IN Los ANGELES 1898-1908 Understanding Their Immigration Jose-Manuel Navarro Gabrielle Kohpahl BROWN EYES ON THE WEB SPANISH AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Unique Perspectives of an Alternative AMONG MIDWEST MEXICAN YOUTH U.S. Latino Online Newspaper The Myth of the Barrier Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez Patricia MacGregor Mendoza PREGONES THEATRE CHICANO EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT A Theatre for Social Change in the Comparing Escue/a Tlatelolco, A South Bronx Chicanocentric School and a Public Eva C. Vasquez High School Elena Aragon de McKissack CARIBBEAN SPANISH IN THE METROPOLIS Spanish Language among Cubans, LATINOS AND LOCAL REPRESENTATION Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans in the Changing Realities, Emerging Theories New York City Area Florence Adams Edwin M. Lamboy SKIN COLOR AND IDENTITY FORMATION Perceptions of Opportunity and Academic Orientation among Mexican and Puerto Rican Youth Edward Fergus First published 2004 by Routledge Published 2017by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright© 2004 by Taylor & Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fergus, Edward, 1974- Skin color and identity formation : perceptions of opportunity and academic orientation among Mexican and Puerto Rican youth / Edward Fergus. p. cm. - (Latino communities) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-94970-X (hardback: alk. paper) 1. Mexican Americans-Education (Secondary)-Michigan-Detroit-Case studies. 2. Puerto Ricans-Education (Secondary)-Michigan-Detroit-Case studies. 3. Mexican American youth-Race identity-Michigan-Detroit-Case studies. 4. Puerto Rican youth-Race identity-Michigan-Detroit-Case studies. 5. Mexican American youth-Michigan-Detroit-Attitudes. 6. Puerto Rican youth-Michigan-Detroit-Attitudes. 7. Urban high schools-Michigan-Detroit. 8. Human skin color-Social aspects-United States. I. Title. II. Series. LC2688.D48F47 2004 373.1829'6872073-dc22 2004005188 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-94970-5 (pbk) This book is dedicated to everyone that has been a sanctuary, a pillar of strength and an anchor of love. Besos y abrazos para todos. Contents List of Tables 1x Preface x1 Acknowledgments xm Introduction xv Chapter One Mapping Explanations of Academic Variability and Racial/ Ethnic Identification 1 Chapter Two Methods 19 Chapter Three Portraits of Self-Identification 35 Chapter Four Negotiating Identification with Other Students and Teachers 63 Chapter Five Perceptions of Life Chances 79 Chapter Six Conceptualizing and Navigating the School Space 103 Chapter Seven Toward an Understanding of the Educational Implications of Skin Color Variation 125 Appendix A 137 Appendix B 151 vii viii Contents Appendix C 153 Appendix D 155 Appendix E 157 Appendix F 159 Appendix G 161 Appendix H 163 Appendix I 165 Notes 167 Bibliography 171 Index 181 List of Tables Table 1 Percentage of National and Detroit Latino/a Groups 20 Table 2 Identification of Respondents 24 Table 3 Participant Background 25 Table 4 District Student Population by Ethnic Group 27 Table 5 Metropolitan Achievement Test Scores (MAT) 28 Table 6 Schools' Student Ethnic Composition 28 Table 7 Schools' Faculty and Staff Ethnic Composition 29 Table 8 Schools' Average Test Scores 30 Table 9 Student Origin and Identification 38 Table 10 Ethnic Identification and Other's Identification 66 Table 11 Student Achievement and Aspirations 106 tX Preface This topic is near and dear to my heart. Just like many of the students I inter­ viewed, I continue to live my life shifting my identity from one context to an­ other. This is not to imply that I am unsure of who I am, nor that the students in this book do not know who they are. However, when you operate within a societal context that uses skin color to situate everyone, you become aware of what you can and cannot be. For example, when I was an undergraduate, I was Black to a majority of the students and professors on campus and Panamanian to the handful of Latino/as on campus. Even in graduate school, I was required to be Black for the research projects I was on and the class­ rooms I was in, but I was Panamanian only to myself, family and friends. It was not until I worked in Washington Heights (a community that was 100% Latino and mostly Dominican) that I could be Panamanian 100% of the time. It is these realities that have reminded me of the significance of race, eth­ nicity and skin color. I separate race, ethnicity and skin color not because I believe they are distinct constructs but rather because I understand them as operating in unique but symbiotic ways. These ways of operating also res­ onate with the realities of the students I interviewed. The discussion in this book touches on the nature of race and ethnic­ ity on various levels. I approach this discussion of race and ethnicity from the vantage point of the students. They catalog race as a biological construct within the United States because Americans use skin color as a proxy for identifying race. However, the students also interpret race as a cultural/eth­ nic construct because, as many students stated, they defined White to mean White American and Black as Black/African American. Both terms in their mind reference a cultural/ethnic group. Such a perspective purports that race and ethnicity are distinct yet connected constructs. However, my focus in writing about the experiences of these students is not to make a value judg­ ment on whether these are valid constructs or if they are one in the same or separate. It is difficult to make such a decision when even academia, reference xi Xtt Preface texts (e.g., dictionaries), the census and state governments, continue to vac­ illate back and forth with regards to whether race and ethnicity are distinct or similar constructs. Thus, what I focus on is the students' discussion of skin color as a proxy for both race and ethnicity. In most instances, I will therefore reference these constructs as race/ethnicity in the effort to signify its dual usage. However when the students are making an evident distinction between race and ethnicity the constructs will be separated out, and I will elucidate upon the students' understanding of the term(s) in those instances. Another construct that I contend with in this book is the notion of identity and identification. Much of the educational research on academic variability among ethnic minority groups has focused on race/ethnicity as a finite identity. Part of my contention in this book is that by focusing on the race/ethnicity of an individual as a finite construct we overlook the shifting nature of race/ethnicity, the impact of society's definition of race/ethnicity, and the significance it plays in an individual's lived experience. Thus, my ap­ proach to exploring race/ethnicity is through the identification that individ­ uals invoke. By intention, I focus on the selection of a racial/ethnic affiliation as a shifting process that is herein referred to as identification. Acknowledgments The development of this book is due to the support of several entities in my life: family, friends, and dissertation committee. My family (nuclear, ex­ tended, and in-laws) has been an ever-present champion of this work and what I do. I am grateful for my parents, brother, Manuel (Manny), my super supportive extended family in Panama, and in-laws-Todos siempre seran parte de mi vida. Amongst my many friends, there are several that I consider my true inspirations-Virgil (Kihika), Tiffany, and Pearl. The three of you have shown me the beauty of discovering and exploring one's intended path. (You will always be in my heart, my prayers, my thoughts, and an everlast­ ing part of my soul. Jah bless!) The last seven years of looking at this work would not be possible with­ out the love and support of my family-Lorelei, Javier, and Sofia.