Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race

As with Black adolescents, experiences with racism play a fundamental role in the identity development of other adolescents of color. Psychologist Jean Phinney’s ethnic identity development model consists of three phrases: unexamined ethnic identity, ethnic identity search, and achieved ethnic identity. As with Black and White people, the identity search is often triggered by an encounter with racism.

Latinxs are now the largest population of color in the United States, but they are an extremely heterogeneous group. About two-thirds are of Mexican ancestry, with the first Mexican Americans becoming a part of US society against their will after the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Puerto Ricans were similarly forced to become US citizens following the Spanish-American War in 1898. Cubans, Salvadorans, and people of many other national origins have immigrated to the US throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, driven by economic conditions, political factors, natural disasters, violence, or other reasons. As heterogeneous as they are, Latinxs are to a large extent unified by some shared cultural values, such as familism. In contrast to White Americans, Latinxs tend to be more family oriented and feel a stronger sense of obligation to support their family members.