Mary E. Odem

“JUAN CROW” IN THE NUEVO SOUTH?

In this paper, we apply Omi and Winants theory of racial formation to understand how a new racial category of “Latino” is being created within Atlanta, a city firmly entrenched in a Black/White binary of race. Comparing Dominicans and Guatemalans in the Atlanta metro area, we show how two processes are “racializing” Latinos: 1) the homogenization of Latinos into a single “race” through state laws and policies and 2) the diversified understandings of and responses to race and racial categorization among Latinos based on their national origin and ethnicity and the specific Atlanta context. We argue that in moving beyond the Black/White binary, state laws that racialize Latinos create a two-dimensional category, with a homogenized “Latino” category as one axis and an illegal/legal distinction as the second axis. The meanings attached to “race” and the consequences that Latinos experience from racialization depend upon their perceived or actual legal status.

SUBALTERN IMMIGRANTS: Undocumented Workers and National Belonging in the United States

The status of millions of undocumented workers from Mexico and Latin America in the United States poses a serious challenge to the countrys founding myth as an immigrant nation. They form an integral part of the US labour force, but exist on the margins of the nations political and social life. With a view to illuminating one aspect of subalternity and citizenship in the US, this essay examines significant shifts in twentieth century immigration law regarding Mexicans and others from south of the border and the shifting conceptions of American national identity on which these laws were based. Since the beginning of large-scale Mexican immigration to the US, they were positioned as cheap, temporary labour – accepted as hard workers, but not desired as permanent citizens. Mexican and other Latino immigrants have resisted their position as a disposable labour force by establishing families and communities and claiming membership in the places where they have settled. I examine the local struggles over immigrant membership in Atlanta, Georgia, a metropolitan area that has experienced a dramatic increase in Latino immigration in the last two decades and that has been at the centre of the political turmoil around illegal immigration.

Racializing Latinos in the Nuevo South

As the number of Latinos in the United States (15.8 percent of the population) surpasses that of African Americans, scholars have accelerated the debate over how the new largest racial/ethnic minority will influence the traditional black/white color line.1 The nuevo south has become a major destination for immigrants since the 1980s.2Three developments have shaped this transformation: global economic restructuring, which created high demand for low-wage workers in the South; mass immigration of Latinos; and immigration laws and policies at federal and local levels. This essay examines the shift more closely, looking at how Latino immigration is transforming categories of race in the Atlanta metro area.