Racial identity among Caribbean Hispanics: the effect of double minority status on residential segregation

Within the Caribbean region, racial identity forms a multicategory continuum from white to black, whereas in the United States it is a dichotomy of black versus white. Many Caribbean Hispanics, therefore, reject a strict racial dichotomy and select some category intermediate between black and white when asked to identify themselves racially on the US Census. Using 1970 and 1980 census tract data, we show that these people display a low degree of segregation from white Hispanics and a high degree of segregation from both black Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks. They are highly segregated from Anglos, however, suggesting that people of mixed racial ancestry are accepted by white Hispanics on the basis of shared ethnicity but are rejected by Anglos on the basis of race. Although both race and ethnicity remain potent factors in American life, results underscore the special salience of race in US society. -from Authors