Taking Stock of Solidarity Between People of Color in U.S. Politics: Accumulated Evidence, New Challenges, and Fresh Opportunities

Efrén Pérez, Professor of Political Science and Psychology at UCLA, and director of its Race, Ethnicity, Politics, & Society (REPS) Lab

Recent work suggests that solidarity between people of color (PoC) is triggered when a minoritized ingroup believes they are discriminated similarly to another outgroup based on their alleged foreigness or inferiority. Heightened solidarity is then supposed to boost support for policies that benefit minoritized outgroups who are not one’s own—for example, Black adults become more pro-Latino, Asian adults become more pro-Black, and Latino adults become more pro-Asian. In this talk, I discuss my lab’s growing experimental evidence on this proposed mechanism. I then highlight new challenges and opportunities to learn more—both theoretically and methodologically—about interminority solidarity in politics. I conclude by discussing new research agendas to advance our understanding about interminority politics in a multiethnic democracy like the United States.

This lecture is made possible in part by a generous endowment from Professor Allen L. Edwards

Faculty host: Clara Wilkins & Sapa Cheryan 
Student host: Jovani Azpeitia 

Q&A and light refreshments to follow the discussion.