Abrajano and Hajnal’s work opens with the idea of the racial threat theory, which is that “individuals in contexts with larger minority populations should feel more threatened, express greater animosity, and be especially supportive of a host of policies aimed at maintaining the in-group’s social, political, and economic privileges” (117) They modify this theory, however, by arguing that whites view large Asian populations as positive while viewing similarly large Latinx populations as threatening. Thus, the racial threat theory applies particularly to Latinx populations.

Tavernise’s New York Times article, on the other hand, lends support to the original racial threat theory, in the midst of a discussion between demographers on the accuracy, ethics, and consequences of publishing data that shows that whites will soon be a racial minority in America. It suggests that when whites are confronted with the idea of losing their status as a majority group, they are more likely to support restrictive immigration and “report negative feelings toward racial minorities” as a whole. The article thus seems to support the idea of the racial threat theory applying to racial minorities across the board. Tavernise closes by suggesting that though political actors seem unwilling to promote them, possible solutions to white backlash lie in emphasizing the good of immigration or suggesting to white Americans that they will still be the dominant racial group due to shifting racial boundaries.

  1. Which conception of the racial threat theory (that it applies to all minorities or only a subset of them) do you find more compelling? Is the article necessarily at odds with Abrajano and Hajnal’s findings, given that we have discussed the conflation of “immigration” with “Latinx immigration” or even “undocumented immigration,” as well as the fact that the Asian-American population is the fastest growing population in the United States?
  2. Do you agree with the potential solutions to white backlash presented in the article? Why or why not?

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/22/us/white-americans-minority-population.html