A Retrospective Analysis of Racial Discrimination Experiences for Latinx Adolescents and Young Adults

Encounters with racial discrimination occur from various sources and contexts for Latinx youth. From a historical context, Latinx have long experienced anti-immigrant sentiment and have been treated as perpetual foreigners. This study centers the voices of U.S.-born Latinx youth and explores their experiences of discrimination in 83 in-depth interviews (15-25 years, (x) over tilde (age) = 21.27, SD = 2.10; 58% Female). Through retrospective accounts, we identified four themes across narratives: assumed (illegal) immigrant, assumed unintelligent, assumed criminal, assumed inferior. Overt and subtle discrimination occurred across contexts and from multiple sources including peers, store employees, and strangers. The findings have implications for understanding Latinx youth make meaning of past experiences of discrimination and how those experiences are interpreted later in life.