Talking Back to Controlling Images: Latinos' Changing Responses to Racism Over the Life Course

Abstract

‘Controlling images’ are central to the reproduction of racial, class, and gender inequality, yet there is a dearth of knowledge pertaining to Latinos. Drawing from sixty-two in-depth, life history interviews with Latino men, we ask: How do controlling images of Latinos as gang members and sports athletes impose constraints and channel emotions? How do Latinos respond to these images? We document how institutions and people deploying controlling images blockade access to education and upward mobility. We find that life course stage shapes Latinos’ responses to this imagery. In their youth, Latino respondents used emotional strategies to resist racial subjugation. As adults, respondents resisted racist controlling images through leadership activities in the professional realm. Since adults possess more social power than youth, adults were better equipped to engage in leadership endeavors as resistance as compared to youth who, constrained by age, predominately utilized emotional resistance strategies.