Ideologies that support racial domination and White supremacy remain foundational in U.S. society, even as the nation becomes increasingly diverse and progressively focused on quantitative measurement. This study explores how a prominent mainstream news outlet represents the growth of the nation’s second largest population, Latinos, within this changing demographic and numeric environment. Drawing from two frameworks, the Latino Threat Narrative and Color-Blind Racism, quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted with 174 Los Angeles Times (LAT) articles about 2000 and 2010 census results. Reporters for the LAT, located in the single most important U.S. location for Latinos, frame Latinos and their population dynamics in line with the overtly racist narrative of Latino threat and the covertly racist ideology of color-blind racism. Moreover, the analyses reveal that quantitative logics circulating in the present evaluative climate further the view that Latinos pose cultural-demographic threats to the nation. Quantification also enhances color-blind frames and rhetorical strategies justifying present-day racial stratification and the subordinate locations of non-White groups. This suggests how White supremacy retains its power as the populations and metrics of evaluation change. Finally, given recent research linking demographic trends and media representations with attitudes, policy positions, and political partisanship, these representations have implications for the well-being of Latinos, other populations, and the nation.
AbrajanoMarisaHajnalZoltan2015. White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
2.
AguirreAdalbertoJr.RodríguezEdgarSimmersJennifer K.2011. “The Cultural Production of Mexican Identity in the United States: An Examination of the Mexican Threat Narrative.” Social Identities17(5):695–707.
3.
AlbaRichardRumbautRubén G.MarotzKaren2005. “A Distorted Nation: Perceptions of Racial/Ethnic Group Sizes and Attitudes toward Immigrants and Other Minorities.” Social Forces84(2):901–19.
4.
Alonso-ZaldivarRicardo2003. “THE NATION; Latinos Now Top Minority; Census Bureau Estimates Group’s U.S. Population at 38.8 Million, Ahead of Blacks for the First Time. Demographers See Even More Growth Ahead.” Los Angeles Times, June19.
5.
Alonso-ZaldivarRicardoFieldsRobin2001. “Latino, Asian Populations Rise Sharply; Census: New Multiracial Figures Find a Substantial Growth of Immigrants in Nontraditional Regions.” Los Angeles Times, March9.
6.
AntonMike2002. “The Region; A 5-Year-Old’s Words, an Officer’s Art; Crime: A Child Witness’ Description Led to the Arrest of a Suspect in the Samantha Runnion Kidnapping-Murder. Experts Say Kids Can Be Reliable Observers.” Los Angeles Times, July30.
BensonRodney2013. Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison. New York: Cambridge University Press.
9.
BlumerHerbert1958. “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” Pacific Sociological Review1:3–7.
10.
Bonilla-SilvaEduardo2003. Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
11.
BrownAnnaLopezMark Hugo2013. “Mapping the Latino Population, by State, County, and City.” Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
12.
BrownMichael K.CarnoyMartinCurrieElliotDusterTroyOppenheimerDavid B.2004. Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
13.
BrownsteinRonald2001. “2004 Already Shaping Up as a Rerun of Florida Feud; Presidency: With the Electoral Map Split Nearly Evenly, GOP and Democrats View the State as Pivotal.” Los Angeles Times, April20.
14.
BustilloMiguelRiccardiNicholas2001. “Parties Rush to Overhaul Political Map; Redistricting: The Decennial Battle over Legislators’ Turf Promises to Be Even More Troublesome Because of Term Limits and Shifts in Ethnic Populations.” Los Angeles Times, March31.
15.
CalvoDana2001. “Bush to Break Language Barrier in Radio Address.” Los Angeles Times, May3.
16.
CeasarStephen2011. “THE NATION; U.S. Hispanic Population Tops 50 Million.” Los Angeles Times, March25.
17.
ChavezLeo R.2001. Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
18.
ChavezLeo R.2008. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
19.
ColbySandra L.OrtmanJennifer M.2015. “Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060.” Population Estimates and Projections, Current Population Reports. P25-1143. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
20.
CollinsPatricia H.1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman.
21.
CraigMaureen A.RichesonJennifer A.2014a. “More Diverse yet Less Tolerant? How the Increasingly Diverse Racial Landscape affects White Americans’ Racial Attitudes.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin40(6):750–61.
22.
CraigMaureen A.RichesonJennifer A.2014b. “On the Precipice of a ‘Majority-Minority’ America Perceived Status Threat from the Racial Demographic Shift Affects White Americans’ Political Ideology.” Psychological Science25(6):1189–97.
23.
DanboldFelixHuoYuen J.2015. “No Longer ‘All-American’? Whites’ Defensive Reactions to Their Numerical Decline.” Social Psychological and Personality Science6(2):210–18.
24.
DayJennifer C.1996. Population Projections of the United States by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2050. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, P25-1130. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
EntmanRobert M.2004. Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
27.
EntmanRobert M.RojeckiAndrew2001. The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
28.
EspelandWendy N.SauderMichael2016. Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability. New York: Russell Sage.
29.
EspelandWendy N.StevensMitchell L.1998. “Commensuration as a Social Process.” Annual Review of Sociology24:313–43.
30.
EspelandWendy N.StevensMitchell L.2008. “A Sociology of Quantification.” European Journal of Sociology49(3):401–36.
31.
FeaginJoe R.2010. The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counterframing. New York: Routledge.
32.
FieldsRobin2001. “CENSUS 2000; THE REGION; A Deepening Diversity, but a Growing Divide; The Southland’s Core Became More Ethnically and Racially Mixed, but Segregation Is Still Evident.” Los Angeles Times, March30.
33.
FieldsRobinHerndonRay2001. “Segregation of a New Sort Takes Shape; Census: In a Majority of Cities, Asians and Latinos Have Become More Isolated from Other Racial Groups.” Los Angeles Times, July5.
34.
FieldsRobinTexeiraErin2001. “White Flight Is Giving Way to Civic Diversity; Census: About Four in 10 Southland Cities Now Have Substantial Populations of Two or More Ethnic or Racial Groups, Data Show.” Los Angeles Times, May20.
FowlerRoger1991. Language in the News. Discourse and Ideology in the British Press. London: Routledge.
37.
FreyWilliam H.2014. Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
38.
GallagherCharles A.2003a. “Color-Blind Privilege: The Social and Political Functions of Erasing the Color Line in Post Race America.” Race, Gender & Class10(4):22–37.
39.
GallagherCharles2003b. “Miscounting Race: Explaining Whites’ Misperceptions of Racial Group Size.” Sociological Perspectives46:381–96.
40.
GarcíaOfelia2009. “Racializing the Language Practices of U.S. Latinos.” Pp. 101–15 in How the United States Racializes Latinos: White Hegemony & Its Consequences, edited by CobasJ. A.DuanyJ.FeaginJ. R.Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
41.
GettlemanJeffrey2001. “THE NATION; Obscure Law Used to Jail Day Laborers in Georgia; Race: Influx of Latinos Tests State’s Inclusiveness. Courts Have Ruled Against Similar Acts Elsewhere.” Los Angeles Times, August21.
42.
GormanTom2001. “California and the West; Nevada Jumps 66.3% in 10 Years, Census Shows; Population: A Tripling of the Number of Latinos Led the Increase. Most of the Growth Is in the Las Vegas Area.” Los Angeles Times, March14.
43.
GutiérrezElena2008. Fertile Matters: The Politics of Mexican Origin Women’s Reproduction. Austin: University of Texas Press.
44.
HallinDaniel C.ManciniPaolo2004. Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
45.
HaynesChrisMerollaJenniferRamakrishnanS. Karthick2016. Framing Immigrants: News Coverage, Pub-lic Opinion, and Policy. New York: Russell Sage.
46.
HighamJohn1955. Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
47.
HortonHayward D.SykesLori L.2008. “Critical Demography and the Measurement of Racism.” Pp. 239–50 in White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology, edited by TZuberiBonilla-SilvaE.Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
48.
HuntingtonSamuel P.2004. “The Hispanic Challenge.” Foreign Policy141:30–45.
49.
JamesMegChmielewskiDawn C.2012. “COMPANY TOWN; MEDIA; ABC and Univision to Launch Network; The 24-Hour English Language Cable News Channel Will Target Latino Viewers.” Los Angeles Times, May8.
JosephRalina L.2011. “Imagining Obama: Reading Overtly and Inferentially Racist Images of our 44th President, 2007–2008.” Communication Studies62: 389–405.
52.
JulienDoug E.2011. “Revisiting Sunday Morning Apartheid: The Politics of Color Blindness and Racial Formation in the Harry Reid Controversy.” The Velvet Light Trap67:57–65.
53.
LamontMichèle2012 “Toward a Comparative Sociology of Valuation and Evaluation.” Annual Review of Sociology38:201–21.
54.
LinRong-GongII. 2011. “Bid for More Latinos on County Board Sets Up Fight; Gloria Molina Seeks an Alternative to a District Plan that Hews to the Status Quo.” Los Angeles Times, August6.
55.
LippardCameron2016. “Playing the ‘Immigrant Card’: Reflections of Color-Blind Rhetoric Within Southern Attitudes on Immigration.” Social Currents3(1):24–42.
56.
Los Angeles Times. 2002. “The State; IN BRIEF / OAKLAND; Immigrants Prefer East Bay to S.F. Area.” March26.
57.
LynchMona2017. “The Narrative of the Number: Quantification in Criminal Court.” Law & Social Inquiry.
58.
MansfieldVirginia2014. Asian Americans and the Mass Media: A Content Analysis of Twenty United States Newspapers and a Survey of Asian American Journalists. New York: Taylor & Francis.
59.
MartelleScottWillonPhil2001. “CENSUS 2000; ORANGE COUNTY; Latinos and Asians Continue a Transformation; Whites Are No Longer the Majority in 10 Cities, Compared with Just One—Santa Ana—A Decade Ago.” Los Angeles Times, March30.
60.
McConnellEileen Díaz2011. “An ‘Incredible Number of Latinos and Asians’: Media Representations of Racial and Ethnic Population Change in Atlanta, Georgia.” Latino Studies9(2/3):177–97.
61.
MehtaSeema2011a. “CENSUS AUGURS INLAND POWER SHIFT; Growth in the State’s Interior Could Boost Minority Groups’ Clout at the Expense of Coastal Strongholds.” Los Angeles Times, March9.
62.
MehtaSeema2011b. “Texas Latinos Hope to Be Reflected in New District Lines; Their Growth Is Evident Everywhere But Among the State’s Elected Officials.” Los Angeles Times, April24.
63.
MenaJenniferSmithDoug2001. “5 Neighborhoods Help Tell Story of Region’s Ethnic Shifts; Census: Sweeping Demographic Changes Play Out in a Thousand Subtle Details of Everyday Life. Some Effects Are Striking; Others Lie Beneath the Surface.” Los Angeles Times, April1.
64.
MerlJean2013. “Cardenas to Join Growing Latino Ranks in Congress; The Recent L.A. Councilman Is the First Latino to Serve the Valley in the House.” Los Angeles Times, January1.
65.
MolinaNatalia2014. How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts. Berkeley: University of California Press.
66.
MoraG. Cristina2014. Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
67.
MuskalMichael2012. “Whites’ Majority Status to Cease by 2043; The U.S. Census Bureau Forecasts the Growth of Minority Populations.” Los Angeles Times, December14.
68.
MyersDowellParkJulie2001. “Racially Balanced Cities in Southern California, 1980-2000,” University of Southern California and University of Michigan Collaborative Project, Race Contours 2000 Study, Public Research Report No. 2001-05. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
69.
OmiMichaelWinantHoward2014. Racial Formation in the United States, 3rd edition.New York: Routledge.
70.
OrgadShani2014. “When Media Representation Met Sociology.” Pp. 133–50 in Media Sociology: A Reappraisal, edited by SWaisbordMalden, MA: Polity Press.
71.
PaceDavid2001. “THE NATION; Latino Numbers More Impressive in Census Than Ballot Box; Trends: Distrust of Politics and Other Factors Have Kept Voting Percentages Down. But Both Major Parties Are Trying to Change That.” Los Angeles Times, September9.
PorterTheodore M.1986. The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
75.
QuinsaatSharon2014. “Competing News Frames and Hegemonic Discourses in the Construction of Contemporary Immigration and Immigrants in the United States.” Mass Communication and Society17(4):573–96.
76.
RodríguezClara E.2000. Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States. New York: New York University Press.
77.
RodríguezIlia2007. “Telling Stories of Latino Population Growth in the United States.” Journalism8(5):573–90.
78.
Rodríguez-MuñizMichael2016. “White Demographobia: Media, Racial Statistics, and the Browning of America.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Seattle, WA.
79.
RojasRick2013. “O.C. City Won’t Vote by District; Anaheim Officials Put Off a Ballot Measure Intended to Boost Latino Representation.” Los Angeles Times, June13.
80.
Santa AnaOtto2002. Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse. Austin: University of Texas Press.
81.
SantosCarlos2017. “The History, Struggles and Potential of the Term Latinx.” Latina/o Psychology Today4(2):7–14.
82.
SchudsonMichael2005. “Four Approaches to the Sociology of News.” Pp. 172–97 in Mass Media and Society, edited by JCurranGurevitchM.New York: Oxford University.
83.
ShahHemantThorntonMichael C.2003. Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict: Competing Visions of America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
84.
ShahHemantYamagamiMai2015. “Color-Blind Racism in Television News and Commentary: The Redemption of Shirley Sherrod.” Howard Journal of Communications26(2):193–205.
85.
SkrentnyJohn D.2002. “Inventing Race.” Public Interest146:97–113.
86.
SotomayorFranklin O.2011. “EAD Racial Categories in Census Show Social, Political Changes.” Los Angeles Times, January2, p. B5.
87.
SquiresCatherine R.2007. Dispatches from the Color Line: The Press and Multiracial America. Albany: State University of New York Press.
88.
Strmic-PawlHephzibah V.JacksonBrandon A.GarnerSteve2018. “Race Counts: Racial and Ethnic Data on the U.S. Census and the Implications for Tracking Inequality.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity4(1):1–13.
89.
StromMeganAlcockEmily2017. “Floods, Waves, and Surges: The Representation of Latin@ Immigrant Children in the United States Mainstream Media.” Critical Discourse Studies14(4):440–57.
90.
ThakoreBhoomiSmithJason A., Eds. 2016. Race and Contention in Twenty-First Century U.S. Media. New York: Routledge.
91.
ThomasMelvin2000. “Anything but Race: The Social Science Retreat from Racism.” African American Research Perspectives79:96.
92.
TimberlakeJeffrey M.HowellJuniaGrauAmy BaumannWilliamsRhys H.2015. “Who ‘They’ Are Matters: Immigrant Stereotypes and Assessments of the Impact of Immigration.” Sociological Quarterly56(2):267–99.
93.
TobarHector2001. “Deep in the Heart of Texas, the Popular Destination Is Suburbia; Census: The State’s Population Is Shifting from Its Rural Tradition. And It’s Now Nearly 30% Latino.” Los Angeles Times, March13.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. “Census 2000 Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File-United States and Los Angeles County. Tables PL1 and PL2.” American Factfinder. www.factfinder.census.gov.
96.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. “Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File-United States and Los Angeles County. Tables P1.” American Factfinder. www.factfinder.census.gov.
ValdezZulemaGolash-BozaTanya2017. “U.S. Racial and Ethnic Relations in the Twenty-First Century.” Ethnic and Racial Studies40(13):2181–209.
100.
WaisbordSilvio2014. “Introduction: Reappraising Media Sociology.” Pp. 1–21 in Media Sociology: A Reappraisal, edited by SWaisbordMalden, MA: Polity Press.
101.
WaldmanSteven2011. “The Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age.” Washington, DC: Federal Communications Commission.
WelkosRobert W.NataleRichard2001. “Multiethnic Movies Ringing True with Youths; Hollywood: Colorblind Audiences Flock to Films that Capture a Culture.” Los Angeles Times, July2.
104.
ZuberiTukufu2001. Thicker than Blood: How Racial Statistics Lie. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
