Mexican American racial uncertainty has long been a defining feature of
US racial understanding. Were Mexican Americans white or nonwhite? In
the post-civil rights period, this racial uncertainty took on new
meaning as the courts, the federal bureaucracy, local school officials,
parents, and community activists sought to turn Mexican American racial
identity to their own benefit. This is the first book that examines the
pivotal 1973 Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1 Supreme Court
ruling, and how debates over Mexican Americans' racial position helped
reinforce the emerging tropes of colorblind racial ideology.
In the post-civil rights era, when overt racism was no longer socially
acceptable, anti-integration voices utilized the indeterminacy of
Mexican American racial identity to frame their opposition to school
desegregation. That some Mexican Americans adopted these tropes only
reinforced the strength of colorblindness in battles against civil
rights in the 1970s.