La racionalización de los mexicanos en Estados Unidos: estratificación racial en la teoría y en la práctica

mechanisms of social stratification require the categorical definition of an out-group to that can be excluded and exploited. historically in the united states african americans have been the subject of a systematic process of racial formation to define them as a exploitable and excludable out-group. beginning in the 1970s and accelerating in the 1980s and 1990s, mexicans increasingly have been subject to a similar process of racialization to render them more exploitable and excludable than ever before. as a result, over the past decade mexican americans moved steadily away from their middle position in the economic hierarchy and toward the formation of an underclass. this paper describes the basic mechanisms of stratification in the united states and how mexicans have steadily been racialized as a dehumanized and vulnerable out-group.