Racial Uncertainties : Mexican Americans, School Desegregation, and the Making of Race in Post-Civil Rights America.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Olden, Danielle R.

Series:

American Crossroads

American Crossroads ; v.68

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mexican Americans--Civil rights--Colorado--Denver.

Mexican Americans.

Mexican Americans--Education--Colorado--Denver.

Racism in education--Colorado--Denver.

Racism in education.

Racism--Colorado--Denver.

Racism.

Segregation in education--Colorado--Denver.

Segregation in education.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (339 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2022.

Summary:

Mexican American racial uncertainty has long been a defining feature of US racial understanding. Were Mexican Americans white or nonwhite? In the post-civil rights period, this racial uncertainty took on new meaning as the courts, the federal bureaucracy, local school officials, parents, and community activists sought to turn Mexican American racial identity to their own benefit. This is the first book that examines the pivotal 1973 Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1 Supreme Court ruling, and how debates over Mexican Americans' racial position helped reinforce the emerging tropes of colorblind racial ideology. In the post-civil rights era, when overt racism was no longer socially acceptable, anti-integration voices utilized the indeterminacy of Mexican American racial identity to frame their opposition to school desegregation. That some Mexican Americans adopted these tropes only reinforced the strength of colorblindness in battles against civil rights in the 1970s.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. (Un)making Mexican American Racial Identity, 1848–1964

2. Racial Migrations: The Mile High City in Transition, 1945–1969

3. Public Schools in Denver’s Racialized Urban Geography

4. Becoming Minority under the Law

5. “Not White, Yet Not, in the Old-Style Parlance, ‘Colored’ ”

6. “American,” Not “Minority”: Mexican Americans and Colorblindness

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780520974746

0520974743

OCLC:

1340958739