The Browning of the New South
Jennifer A. Jones

Our current political climate is one where conflict seems to trump cooperation. Jennifer Jones’s The Browning of the New South invites us to see cooperative tendencies on the local and regional scale, in the face of louder national narratives of racial tension. Jones explores the interpersonal relationships and attitudes of Latinos in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and documents how their experience of social-political exclusion has shifted their position in the Southeast’s racial hierarchy. Winston-Salem epitomizes demographic changes throughout the “New South,” including reverse migrations of African Americans, and the boom in Latino immigrant populations. Jones chronicles an interdependence between these racial minorities.

Hostile political and social environments for Latinos, tenuous labor protections, and strategic inclusion by African American leadership are some of the key ingredients for what Jones calls “minority linked fate.” Winston-Salem had once been a welcoming destination for Latinos, but the attitude of welcome eroded in the wake of 9/11. Jones links the implementation of stringent immigration policies with a rise in discrimination against Latinos. Empathizing with this discrimination, African American leadership undertook to incorporate Latinos into local communities.

More research is needed to document and understand the growth of rainbow coalitions in the New South. Jones’s findings recasts race as socially-constructed and fluid. This crucial recognition allows her to explore how analogous perceptions of marginalization and discrimination are blending unexpected alliances. Jones contends that detailed, qualitative research at the local level can elucidate overarching trends regionally and nationally. Even small-scale actions and perceptions, Jones reminds us, inevitably color our national narrative.

Jennifer A. Jones (PhD) specializes in race and ethnicity, immigration, political sociology, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Jones’ recent work can be found in such journals as International Migration Review, Contexts, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Latino Studies.
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The Browning of the New South is a publication by the University of Chicago Press. Click here to purchase. 
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Reviewed ​by
Gabriella Coelho
​12/7/2019

Gabriella Coelho is a first-generation Brazilian-American who is passionate about feminist literature and the treatment of minorities in American politics. She studies International Relations at the University of Central Florida where she works for the Latin American Studies program.

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