Bridging Divides to Develop Community: Investigating Intergroup Relations among Urban Residents
This panel presents findings from the Immigration and Integration projects the authors conducted this past year under the auspices of the Metamorphosis Project at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. These four papers focus on intergroup relations between new Latino and African American residents in Greater Crenshaw, a community located in South Los Angeles. For several decades, Crenshaw has been a largely African American neighborhood, but a recent influx of Latino immigrants from Mexico and Central America is in the process of transforming the neighborhood. Crenshaw is currently home to over 376,000 people, of which 49 percent are African American and 38 percent are Latino. Furthermore, 43 percent of Crenshaw residents over the age of five speak a language other than English at home, indicating that both linguistic and cultural differences are potential contributing factors to strained intergroup relations between Crenshaw’s residents. Tensions in the schools and other shared spaces have resulted in considerable media and policymaker attention on so-called rifts between African American and Latino residents in this community. While much of the literature on African American-Latino intergroup relations does take this conflict-oriented approach, there is also considerable research to document that close proximity can reduce racial stereotyping. Employing a communication infrastructure perspective directed us to ask if neighborhood communication practices of these two populations are bounded by race/ethnicity. Our approach goes beyond identifying group divisions. In the research presented here, we explore the community contexts that act as potential locations for intergroup communication between Latinos and African Americans that can build a shared sense of community.
These four papers are components of a larger project committed to understanding how intergroup communication works in Greater Crenshaw, through applied research in key community settings. Chris Chavez focuses on the local churches and their potential to promote intergroup interaction, within church activities and beyond. Vikki Katz presents findings from an intervention project in local schools that brought African American and Latino parents into classrooms to participate in activities with their children, and with each other. Carmen Gonzalez, Evelyn Moreno & Sandra Ball-Rokeach focus on community-based organizations in the area that serve both the Latino and African American residents of the local community. Finally, Charlotte Lapsansky’s investigation of murals as public expressions of community inclusion and exclusion adds a symbolic but applied component to the project’s understanding of how community boundaries are lived and expressed. The applied nature of these four individual projects, joined by their theoretical foundation, is an example of rigorous theory-driven, multi-method research that has real capacity for social impact. The accumulated findings of these projects will be presented to community organizations and local leadership as a contribution toward understanding how a shared sense of community can develop by encouraging intergroup interaction in and across key community institutions.
Catholic Parishes as Agents of Integration and Isolation
Chris Chavez
Newcomers to a long-established community can be perceived as strange and unfamiliar, and immigrants in particular are often marked by differences in language and cultural practices. Within a new environment, Catholic parishes often serve as spaces of segmented assimilation where new immigrants can maintain their native values while transitioning into to mainstream culture. Within an ethnically mixed neighborhood such as Crenshaw, the universality of the Catholic Church also provides it with a unique opportunity to integrate Latinos with Catholic residents of other ethnic backgrounds and cultural traditions. Using a multi-methodological approach that includes focus groups, participant observation, and in-depth interviews with parish pastors, this study examines the role that Catholic parishes play as agents of integration and isolation.
An Active Education: Classroom Participation as an Influence on Intergroup Relations between Parents
Vikki Katz
Research indicates that new immigrant and African American parents often feel some disconnection from their children’s educations, though these disconnects may emanate from different sources. This paper describes an intervention project in two Crenshaw schools that brought African American and Latino parents into the classroom to complete hands-on science projects with their children. While the primary goal of the project was to increase parental comfort and engagement with teachers and curriculum content, the program also provided ongoing opportunities for intergroup relations. The workshops provided parents with opportunities to interact across group lines as concerned parents, rather than as members of different racial/ethnic groups. Data presented in this paper draws from pre- and post- intervention interviews with parents and field notes of interactions observed within the workshops.
Working Together for a Shared Community: Community-Based Organizations as Sites of Intergroup Interaction
Carmen Gonzalez, Evelyn Moreno & Sandra Ball-Rokeach
Community-based organizations (CBOs) can help residents understand their communities by fostering interaction between members and promoting civic engagement. In Greater Crenshaw, certain CBOs help develop ties between African American and Latino residents, while other organizations focus more on strengthening in-group ties. Media coverage of African American and Latino relations in Los Angeles tends to focus on violent stories of intergroup relations. This study, however, explores the less visible intergroup interaction occuring on grassroots levels. Through a content analysis of newspaper coverage, we establish the media’s perspective of intergroup relations in the Crenshaw area and then compare these depictions to the stories told in interviews with staff and members of CBOs in the community.
Community on the Walls: How Public Murals Can Affect Intergroup Relations in a Shared Community
Charlotte Lapsansky
Public murals are an important component of community arts and cultural participation in enabling civic engagement and community ties. Los Angeles has over 3000 murals, including many in Greater Crenshaw. These murals document a range of reactions to the demographic shifts in Greater Crenshaw. We explore the context of creation of these murals, and how their content (which often addresses themes of ethnic pride and/or diversity) reflects the patterns of tension and integration among these two communities. Moving beyond the content of individual murals, this paper discusses the ways that presence of and participation in community arts may strengthen bonds within African American and Latino resident groups, and provide opportunities for bridging between these two groups.
Posted by Chris Chavez in | Leave a comment
Keep track of all the latest news by subscribing to our RSS feed.
Copyright 2020 Metamorphosis, Annenberg School for Communication, USC |
RSS Feed