Diversity's Child: People of Color and the Politics of Identity

For decades now, pundits and political scientists have been pointing to a major demographic change that's underway in the United States. Demographers project that whites will become a minority of the US population and that minority groups will jointly comprise a majority before 2050.

Diversity's Child appraises the political ramifications of this change. Efren O. Perez deftly argues that America's changing demographics are forging a new identity for many as people of color-that unifies the political outlook of assorted minority groups. Drawing on opinion surveys of multiple minority groups, social science experiments with minority adults, content analyses of newspapers and congressional archives, and in-depth interviews with minority individuals, Perez makes two key points. First, a person of color's identity does exist, and we can reliably measure it, as well as distinguish it from other identities that minorities hold. Second, across a wide swath of circumstances, identifying as a person of color profoundly shapes how minorities view themselves and their political system. Diversity's Child is a vital and engaging look at America's identity politics as well as at how people of color think about racial disparities and how politics can best solve them.