Toward a Latinx Stratification Economics

Abstract

This paper describes Latinx stratification economics (LSE) as a scholarly approach to studying the economic status of Latinas/os/es/xs primarily in the United States. We coin the term LSE to refer to work that draws on and is in conversation with both the emergent, interdisciplinary subfield of stratification economics (SE) and the interdisciplinary field of Latinx studies (LS). SE and LS have distinct intellectual traditions and drawing on both leads to strong theoretical and empirical scholarship on Latinxs, on the operation of race across space and historical time, and on the intersection of race with other systems of domination. We discuss how, based on these perspectives, it is misguided to expect racial/ethnic categories like Hispanic to be consistent over time and space and to correspond reliably with phenotypical characteristics or culture. We argue that a good faith reading of the LS literature would result in the recommendation to subordinate models of migration to models of colonialism and imperialism. We discuss the significance of normative goals and social justice to complement “gap analysis” comparisons to non-Hispanic whites. Lastly, we discuss deficiencies of the dominant models of discrimination and, as an alternative, we highlight rational models of racism that involve strategic identifications with whiteness, blackness, and mestizaje, including by members who identify as Latinx or those with Hispanic ancestry.