scholarly journals “I’m Not Spanish, I’m from Spain”: Spaniards’ Bifurcated Ethnicity and the Boundaries of Whiteness and Hispanic Panethnic Identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
José G. Soto-Márquez

This study counters potentially premature demographic and sociological claims of a large-scale Hispanic transition into mainstream whiteness. Via in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations of recently arrived Spanish immigrants in the United States, it presents a distinctive shift in American categorization logic, whereby race and ethnicity switch in order of everyday importance. Despite Spanish immigrants’ direct links to Europe and few structural social boundaries between them and mainstream U.S. whites, their everyday experience is of a largely “symbolic whiteness” that is subservient to the more consequential and essentialist Hispanic panethnic identity. Forced to maneuver this unique “bifurcated ethnicity,” Spaniards highlight a theoretically important deviation from the established ethnic options for European coethnics in the United States. Overall, Spaniards’ ethnoracial adaptations and their identity vary by institutional sites, by social settings, and along gender lines. Their ethnic bifurcation brings into question the overall logic and stability of the U.S. Hispanic/white boundaries.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeb Jones ◽  
Patrick S Sullivan ◽  
Travis H Sanchez ◽  
Jodie L Guest ◽  
Eric W Hall ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Existing health disparities based on race and ethnicity in the United States are contributing to disparities in morbidity and mortality during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We conducted an online survey of American adults to assess similarities and differences by race and ethnicity with respect to COVID-19 symptoms, estimates of the extent of the pandemic, knowledge of control measures, and stigma. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to describe similarities and differences in COVID-19 symptoms, knowledge, and beliefs by race and ethnicity among adults in the United States. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional survey from March 27, 2020 through April 1, 2020. Participants were recruited on social media platforms and completed the survey on a secure web-based survey platform. We used chi-square tests to compare characteristics related to COVID-19 by race and ethnicity. Statistical tests were corrected using the Holm Bonferroni correction to account for multiple comparisons. RESULTS A total of 1435 participants completed the survey; 52 (3.6%) were Asian, 158 (11.0%) were non-Hispanic Black, 548 (38.2%) were Hispanic, 587 (40.9%) were non-Hispanic White, and 90 (6.3%) identified as other or multiple races. Only one symptom (sore throat) was found to be different based on race and ethnicity (<i>P</i>=.003); this symptom was less frequently reported by Asian (3/52, 5.8%), non-Hispanic Black (9/158, 5.7%), and other/multiple race (8/90, 8.9%) participants compared to those who were Hispanic (99/548, 18.1%) or non-Hispanic White (95/587, 16.2%). Non-Hispanic White and Asian participants were more likely to estimate that the number of current cases was at least 100,000 (<i>P</i>=.004) and were more likely to answer all 14 COVID-19 knowledge scale questions correctly (Asian participants, 13/52, 25.0%; non-Hispanic White participants, 180/587, 30.7%) compared to Hispanic (108/548, 19.7%) and non-Hispanic Black (25/158, 15.8%) participants. CONCLUSIONS We observed differences with respect to knowledge of appropriate methods to prevent infection by the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Deficits in knowledge of proper control methods may further exacerbate existing race/ethnicity disparities. Additional research is needed to identify trusted sources of information in Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black communities and create effective messaging to disseminate correct COVID-19 prevention and treatment information.


2020 ◽  
pp. 109-146
Author(s):  
Pierre-Hugues Verdier

This chapter examines the rise of financial sanctions as a tool of U.S. foreign policy and the role of U.S. prosecutors in enforcing sanctions against global banks. It describes how the United States developed its financial sanctions capabilities against terrorist groups, then turned them against state actors such as North Korea, culminating with elaborate sanctions programs against Iran and Russia. It shows how U.S. federal and state prosecutors uncovered large-scale sanctions evasion efforts at numerous global banks that processed U.S. dollar payments. This enforcement campaign led to some of the largest criminal fines ever levied, and global banks such as HSBC and BNP Paribas agreed to implement U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering controls in their worldwide operations, thus broadening the reach of U.S. policy. Although U.S. enforcement actions faced strong criticism by U.S. allies, banks facing large fines, negative publicity, and potential loss of access to essential U.S. dollar payment infrastructure complied with U.S. demands. Unlike other cases, U.S. sanctions did not lead to multilateral reforms, instead triggering efforts by sanctioned states and bystanders to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar and U.S. payment systems.


Author(s):  
Howard G. Wilshire ◽  
Richard W. Hazlett ◽  
Jane E. Nielson

Since 1900, United States troops have fought in more foreign conflicts than any other nation on Earth. Most Americans supported those actions, believing that they would keep the scourge of war far from our homes. But the strategy seems to have failed—it certainly did not prevent terror attacks against the U.S. mainland. The savage Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the 11 September 2001 (9/11) attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. were not the first to inflict war damage in America’s 48 contiguous states, however—nor were they the first warlike actions to harm innocent citizens since the Civil War. Paradoxically, making war abroad has always required practicing warfare in our own back yards. Today’s large, mechanized military training exercises have degraded U.S. soils, water supplies, and wildlife habitats in the same ways that the real wars affected war-torn lands far away. The saddest fact of all is that the deadly components of some weapons in the U.S. arsenal never found use in foreign wars but have attacked U.S. citizens in their own homes and communities. The relatively egalitarian universal service of World War II left a whole generation of Americans with nostalgia and reverence for military service. Many of us, perhaps the majority, might argue that human and environmental sacrifices are the price we must be willing to pay to protect our interests and future security. A current political philosophy proposes that the United States must even start foreign wars to protect Americans and their homes. But Americans are not fully aware of all the past sacrifices—and what we don’t know can hurt us. Even decades-old impacts from military training still degrade land and contaminate air and water, particularly in the arid western states, and will continue to do so far into the future. Exploded and unexploded bombs, mines, and shells (“ordnance,” in military terms) and haphazard disposal sites still litter former training lands in western states. And large portions of the western United States remain playgrounds for war games, subject to large-scale, highly mechanized military operations for maintaining combat readiness and projecting American power abroad.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xia-Huang Yin

AbstractThis article studies characteristics of recent immigrants from China (PRC) in the United States, especially their socioeconomic status and networking with their native land. The unprecedented, large-scale, and highly diversified immigration from China to the U.S. since the late 1970s has not only turned the Chinese into the second largest immigrant group in American society, but has also created new opportunities for interpretation of the Chinese diasporic experience. By examining the socioeconomic diversity among PRC immigrants in their American life and the extensive networks they have established across the Pacific, the article shows how class, ethnicity, and transnationality work at cross purposes in the Chinese American experience and sheds light on the new dynamics in overseas Chinese communities in this rapidly changing era.


Author(s):  
Ian Caine ◽  
◽  
Trenton Tunks ◽  
Carlos Serrano ◽  
◽  
...  

By the year 2050 the United States population will increase by half, with 70% living in a megaregion (Regional Plan Association, 2006). These numbers emphasize the critical link between large-scale territorial expansion and the prospects for successful urbanism. Currently, 11 mega-regions exist in the U.S., each bound together by a unique mixture of demographics, infrastructure, culture, and environment. As each megaregion grows, it must identify and leverage critical infrastructures that are capable of binding geographies and increasing efficiencies. This project speculates about one such strategy for the emerging megaregion known as the Texas Triangle.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth ARANDA ◽  
Elizabeth VAQUERA

In 2018, President Trump changed a long-standing policy of keeping families who cross the United States border together; instead, he ordered that parents be detained separately from children, drawing a national outcry that led to his administration walking back the practice. Drawing on 50 in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults in the state of Florida, USA, we argue that the practice of family separation through immigration policy is not new. We illustrate how our sample’s undocumented status puts them at risk for family separation under the current ‘deportation regime’ that creates a heightened and all-encompassing fear about the possibility of family separation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald S. Travis

The American sociologist Morris Janowitz presented two world views of security named “absolutist” and “pragmatist.” This dualistic paradigm endures into the 21st century and explains how complex and contentious security options are debated within the U.S. security establishment. His paradigm also reveals a condition called the “hegemon trap,” which means that the more powerful militarily that a state becomes relative to other states, the less likely it will fight a large-scale conventional war, resulting in frequent and perpetual limited, low-intensity, and unconventional wars. Based on experiences learned since the Vietnam War, the United States can improve global security by balancing resources between absolutist and pragmatist outlooks. This requires devoting a greater share of resources toward peacetime engagement, stability operations, and unconventional warfare.


Author(s):  
Mark Zeller ◽  
Karthik Gangavarapu ◽  
Catelyn Anderson ◽  
Allison R. Smither ◽  
John A. Vanchiere ◽  
...  

AbstractThe emergence of the early COVID-19 epidemic in the United States (U.S.) went largely undetected, due to a lack of adequate testing and mitigation efforts. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana experienced one of the earliest and fastest accelerating outbreaks, coinciding with the annual Mardi Gras festival, which went ahead without precautions. To gain insight into the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. and how large, crowded events may have accelerated early transmission, we sequenced SARS-CoV-2 genomes during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Louisiana. We show that SARS-CoV-2 in Louisiana initially had limited sequence diversity compared to other U.S. states, and that one successful introduction of SARS-CoV-2 led to almost all of the early SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Louisiana. By analyzing mobility and genomic data, we show that SARS-CoV-2 was already present in New Orleans before Mardi Gras and that the festival dramatically accelerated transmission, eventually leading to secondary localized COVID-19 epidemics throughout the Southern U.S.. Our study provides an understanding of how superspreading during large-scale events played a key role during the early outbreak in the U.S. and can greatly accelerate COVID-19 epidemics on a local and regional scale.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 246-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Kirsch ◽  
Richard F. Feeney ◽  
Alisha Goodbla ◽  
Christopher Hart ◽  
Zachary J. Jackson ◽  
...  

Abstract Exotic species have been implicated as a major threat to native freshwater fish communities in the Unites States. The San Francisco Estuary watershed has been recognized as one of the most invaded systems where exotics often dominate the fish community. On October 6, 2014, members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service detected a previously unknown exotic fish in a disconnected pool immediately upstream from the Chowchilla Bifurcation Structure in the San Joaquin River, a major tributary of the San Francisco Estuary. A member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initially identified the fish as an Oriental Weatherfish Misgurnus anguillicaudatus using external morphological characteristics. We conducted additional fish sampling near the Chowchilla Bifurcation Structure in November 2014 and collected a total of six additional specimens in disconnected pool habitats. Unexpectedly, genetic and meristic techniques revealed that these specimens were Large-Scale Loach Paramisgurnus dabryanus. To our knowledge this is the first confirmed occurrence of Large-Scale Loach in the United States and the suspected pathway of introduction is release from aquaria. Very little is known about the population in the San Joaquin River. We recommend further evaluation of the ecology, distribution, and abundance of Large-Scale Loach to better understand their potential impact on the fish communities of the San Joaquin River and the likelihood of establishment throughout the United States.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina Panait ◽  
Víctor Zúñiga

This article provides insights into the linguistic transitions and ruptures of migrant children in Mexican schools. The analysis focuses on children’s practices and perceptions of their own difficulties when reading and writing in Spanish after spending months in schools in the United States. Using in-depth interviews and sociolinguistic analysis, the article presents the particular case of children who endure seasonal migratory circulation between Mexico and the United States, and examines the linguistic disruptions these children experience during their journey from English to Spanish literacy every school year. Este artículo presenta hallazgos en torno a las transiciones y rupturas lingüísticas de los niños migrantes en las escuelas mexicanas. El análisis se centra en las prácticas y percepciones de los niños acerca de sus propias dificultades al leer o escribir en español después de haber pasado periodos en las escuelas de Estados Unidos. Los datos que se presentan provienen de niños que participan año tras año de la migración circular de tipo estacional entre México y Estados Unidos. Mediante entrevistas a profundidad y análisis sociolingüísticos, se examinan las dislocaciones lingüísticas que estos niños experimentan mientras se están moviendo del inglés al español cada año escolar.


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