Does affirming Black and Latino people asAmericanweaken racial solidarity? A surprising “no” from two pre-registered experiments

Abstract

Drawing on social identity theory, we predicted that affirming Black and Latino individuals as American would undermine solidarity between people of color (PoC), who are broadly stereotyped by society as un-American. We tested this prediction in two pre-registered experiments with Black and Latino adults ( N = 1,880), where participants read about another minoritized group’s contribution to U.S. culture (i.e., Latino people: reggaetón and hip hop; Black people: jazz and hip hop). Reading about Latinos’ musical contributions to U.S. culture insignificantly reduced Black solidarity with PoC, although an increase in Black solidarity with PoC unexpectedly boosted support for pro-Latino policies. In turn, reading about Black contributions to U.S. culture surprisingly increased Latino solidarity with PoC, which then substantially heightened pro-Black policy support. This unanticipated mediation effect is statistically robust and substantively meaningful. We explain how these contradictory results help advance research on the conditions that catalyze solidarity between PoC.