Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice

by Ian F. Haney-López

In 1968, ten thousand students marched in protest over the terrible conditions prevalent in the high schools of East Los Angeles, the largest Mexican community in the United States. Chanting "Chicano Power," the young insurgents not only demanded change but heralded a new racial politics. Frustrated with the previous generation's efforts to win equal treatment by portraying themselves as racially white, the Chicano protesters demanded justice as proud members of a brown race. The legacy of this fundamental shift continues to this day.

Ian Haney Lopez tells the compelling story of the Chicano movement in Los Angeles by following two criminal trials, including one arising from the student walkouts. He demonstrates how racial prejudice led to police brutality and judicial discrimination that in turn spurred Chicano militancy. He also shows that legal violence helped to convince Chicano activists that they were nonwhite, thereby encouraging their use of racial ideas to redefine their aspirations, culture, and selves. In a groundbreaking advance that further connects legal racism and racial politics, Haney Lopez describes how race functions as "common sense," a set of ideas that we take for granted in our daily lives. This racial common sense, Haney Lopez argues, largely explains why racism and racial affiliation persist today.

By tracing the fluid position of Mexican Americans on the divide between white and nonwhite, describing the role of legal violence in producing racial identities, and detailing the commonsense nature of race, Haney Lopez offers a much needed, potentially liberating way to rethink race in the United States.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2003

Reviews

[Kari B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good. It talks about common sense racism, the history of viewing and racializing Chicanos as "brown" to "white" to "brown" again gave way to the Chicano movement (Brown Berets), modeled after the Black Panther Party Movement to end police brutality against Latino communities, specifically talking about East Los Angeles. The only reason this got 3 stars is because it didn't reflect too much on how anti-black the Chicano movement was, and how adopting nativity (or indigeneity) was anything less than problematic. If the analysis was discussing these two things, while not derailing from the hurt and pain that deeply effected the Latino community, I would've given this book a higher rating.

[Shelley Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been sitting on my shelf for several years and I am SO glad I finally took the time to read it! The ideas in this book are very accessible and Haney Lopez's style is clear and easy to follow. He uses the Chicano movement of the late 60s/early 70s to demonstrate the concept of "common sense racism," showing how ideas of race are primarily routine, everyday, and taken for granted constructions. He argues that this common sense racism created the unjust/unrepresentative "justice" system that Chicanos on criminal trial faced, and also led to the birth of the movement itself.

This is also an amazing account of the history of Mexicans/Mexican Americans/Chicanos in East LA. Haney Lopez recounts how East LA youth (and other activists throughout the Southwest) rejected their community's framing of themselves as racially "white" Mexican Americans in an attempt to gain equality. Frustrated with ongoing police brutality, legal violence, and oppression, and inspired by Black Power, the Chicano movement embraced a proud, Brown identity (a native American, indigenous, brown race, that is).

What was incredibly angering while reading this book, though, was the fact that many issues that were the catalyst for the Chicano movement (police brutality, 'stop and frisk' methods, lack of social services/quality education, and negative stereotypes...some dating back to the 19th century) easily describe problems faced by many Latino/minority POC communities in the US today. (Not to discount or diminish the gains that this movement has made). As Haney Lopez rightly notes, in the post-civil rights era, inequality based on common sense racism has, in many ways, has been replaced with a common sense that minorities are criminally-inclined.

I'll end it on this quote:

"For individuals to overcome common sense racism, they must recognize bias in their thinking, correctly estimate its extent, and exercise sufficient control over their mental processes to actually allow correction. Far higher hurdles confront efforts to remake racial common sense on a group- or culture-wide basis. Calling into question what otherwise seems normal and right jeopardizes one's social standing. Because race operates as common sense, challenging racial inequality becomes tantamount to attacking orthodoxy…" (pg 129).

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't have read this for fun, but I think this will be a good book to work with in class this semester. Very interesting; about the Chicano movement of the late 60s, early 70s. Comes from a law and order perspective, but sociological analysis also included. Glad it's done!

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haney-Lopez’s work has been instrumental in thinking about the social construction of race through a legal lens, especially in Latino Studies. This book reviews some history of East L.A. little discussed outside the discipline while offering a succinct theory of how race operates through a “common sense” understanding of social relations. This common sense understanding of race helped to shape Chicano identity in East L.A. in the late 1960s, in particular as a response discrimination and police violence Mexicans faced surrounding two notable trials referred to by the monikers of the defendants (The East LA Thirteen and the Biltmore Six). A great read and a great work of critical race scholarship.

[Dee Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I chose this book, little did I know that the information it contained would take center stage in our conversations and news cycles. This book explains the concept of "common sense" racism, an in depth review of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, the influence and coalition with the African American Civil Rights Movement, and the lasting legacy of the justice system on minority communities. So many passages in this book could be CTL + C, CTL + V into today's conversations and realize little has changed and in fact been normalized under the guise of Law and Order. A great source as a starting point for understanding where we are today and how we got here.

[are we there yet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tend to associate Ian Lopez with dog-whistle politics and had no idea he published this book way back in 2003, which now seems like eons ago.

Interesting history of the Chicano movement, which doesn't get enough coverage in school. Back in the day I was under the impression that Chicano was just an outdated term for Latino/Hispanic (I didn't know how these two terms were different either), but it turns out it's specifically associated with this movement.

A little curious to see what happened to the youths who participated, if they're disappointed that so little has changed after all these years.

[Sanchita · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great analysis of the structure of racism and how it produces racist outcomes while seeming neutral. He talks about how Mexican Americans shifted from being white identified to claiming a brown Chicano identity.