Diversity's Child: People of Color and the Politics of Identity by Efrén O. Pérez

Abstract

Diversity's Child: People of Color and the Politics of Identity is a welcome addition to the literature on racial and ethnic studies. Efrén O. Pérez finds that the color line is an enduring social division but that Black, Latino, and Asian Americans increasingly share an identity as people of color (PoC ID). Their distinct racial identities and national loyalties are still important but are nested within this broader, independent identity category. To support his contention that a PoC ID is a growing force in American politics, Pérez uses a wealth of data sources and multiple methods to analyze his surveys, experiments, and focus groups. He finds that a PoC ID exerts a powerful influence over the individual's world view and can galvanize unified action among the three major racial and ethnic groups. This identity construct was years in the making, but now many Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans subscribe to this pan-racial identity. A PoC ID holds the potential to shape attitudes, facilitate the formation of coalitions, and support initiatives seen as benefitting people of color. Given that they now constitute almost 40 percent of the U.S. population, the emergence of this new identity formation holds the potential to remake American politics.