Shades of Sympathy: Investigating Racial Sympathy among Latinos in the US

• In Event: Affective Experiences and Current Political Environments

Abstract

Scholars of Latino politics have demonstrated the importance of understanding racial diversity among Latinos. Among the many racial identities that exist in the United States, a significant number of Latinos self-identify as White. I examine the impact of White identity on support for racialized policies among this population in the US. I draw from Chudy's (2021) theory of ``racial sympathy," originally developed to explain White political behavior, to examine the policy attitudes of racially sympathetic White Latinos as well as the moderating effects of skin tone on this relationship. This study both explores the existence of racial sympathy among White Latinos and disentangles racial sympathy from alternative explanations of opinion about racialized policies such as racial resentment and inter-group solidarity.

Author

• Lindsey Paola González, Texas A&M University