White and Latino Differences in Neighborhood Emotional Connections and the Racialization of Space

Abstract

ABSTRACT Topics of space and neighborhoods are important areas for the study of race and racial inequality. Based on a qualitative study of one middle-class neighborhood with a mix of whites and Latinos in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I examine emotional connections to the neighborhood. My findings demonstrate how white and Latino residents described distinct understandings of sense of belonging, neighborhood history, and neighborhood attachment. I situate these findings within a theory of racial space to illustrate how symbolic meanings given to space can reproduce and reinforce a racial hierarchy. I argue that the differences in how whites and Latinos describe emotional connections to their neighborhood reflect the racialization of space.