By Alise Brillault

April 26, 2022

Some of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative’s (UCLA LPPI) most sought-after research products are its analyses of Latino voters. As the nation’s second-largest ethnic group, Latinos are consequential in determining the outcome of elections. Thus, understanding the size and voting behavior of Latino communities across the country is critical to mobilizing this growing electorate.

Dr. Rodrigo Domínguez-Villegas, UCLA LPPI’s co-director of research, has spearheaded several reports that analyze the size of the Latino population that is eligible to vote, the number of Latinos who register to vote, and the actual candidates and ballot measures that Latinos support. With these studies, UCLA LPPI is debunking the myth of Latinos as a monolithic voting bloc and asking questions to understand the nuances of this diverse electorate.

UCLA LPPI understands that while the Latino vote is consequential, when voters of color come together they can wield significant influence. That is why UCLA LPPI prioritizes working in multiracial coalition to understand the collective power of voters of color. As such, UCLA LPPI has affiliations with faculty experts like Dr. Natalie Masuoka, UCLA professor of political science and Asian American studies, to study the voting behavior of Asian Americans and Latinos in conjunction.

“Latino voters and Asian voters are the two demographic groups growing fastest in the country,” Dr. Domínguez-Villegas explained. “Their impact on deciding elections has grown in the past decade, and it will only keep growing.”

Dr. Masuoka emphasized that researchers also learn the most when thinking comparatively. “We cannot analyze a population in isolation,” she said. “We therefore can’t understand the impact of race on voting by only looking at one group – we need to look at how it’s constructed vis-a-vis other groups.”

Some of the projects that UCLA LPPI has worked on in collaboration with Dr. Masuoka and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center include an analysis of Latino and Asian voters in the 2020 primary elections and a study of racial differences in the support of California propositions that same year.

The innovative method of conducting this research was originally conceptualized by Dr. Matt Barreto and is unique to UCLA LPPI. Rather than relying on traditional exit polls, wherein surveyors only interview small numbers of voters, UCLA LPPI analyzes actual ballots cast in all precincts and matches that data to demographic information. This allows researchers to more accurately understand the choices of Latinos and other voters of color.

Furthermore, going beyond party choice to focus on ballot propositions allows researchers to gain a more granular understanding of the diversity of political views within communities.

Another distinctive facet of this work is the hands-on engagement of  policy fellows in the research. Graduate students use their quantitative skills to gather and present data to research analysts therbey by helping to draw substantive conclusions. These graduate fellows in turn train undergraduate students such as Bryanna Ruiz Fernández, which facilitates unique mentorship opportunities.

“As a first-generation college student, higher education has been a difficult space to navigate, and research even more difficult,” said Ruiz Fernández. “However, having the opportunity to be guided by individuals like Michael Herndon and Daisy Vazquez Vera who faced similar challenges as myself, I was able to receive individualized support and guidance in order to build the skills that will ensure I am successful in whichever research-focused role I find myself in.”

Policy fellows also bring to the table key insights from their lived experiences growing up and working in Latino communities.

“Many of these students have participated in voter mobilization efforts,” Dr. Domínguez-Villegas explained. “They can understand the needs of the Latino community and voters’ priorities through an organizer’s perspective.”

UCLA LPPI is now gearing up for the 2022 midterm elections, with research that will focus on key states like Arizona, Florida and Georgia where Latino and other voters of color will be consequential to election outcomes

LA Social Science interviews Dr. Sherene Razack, Distinguished Professor in Gender Studies & Penney Kanner Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at UCLA. Her new book titled, Nothing Has to Make Sense: Upholding White Supremacy Through Anti-Muslim Racism, argues that the figure of the Muslim reveals a world divided between the deserving and the disposable, where people of European origin are the former and all others are confined in various ways to regimes of disposability. Emerging from critical race theory, and bridging with Islamophobia/critical religious studies, it demonstrates that anti-Muslim racism is a revelatory window into the operation of white supremacy as a global force.

Interview Chapters:

00:04 – Intro

01:00 – What is the main contribution of this book?

04:23 – Meaning of “Christian White Supremacy”?

06:58 – How has popular culture and anti-Muslim racism changed over time?

09:54 – Why should someone read this book?

To learn more, check out Professor Razack’s book, Nothing Has to Make Sense: Upholding White Supremacy Through Anti-Muslim Racism.

 

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As summer 2022 approaches, LA Social Science had the opportunity to interview Harold Lewis, summer lecturer in Communications, about his course on film finance. Mr. Lewis is the Founder of Pitch2Me.com, an Online Film Finance Portal that brings filmmakers and professional film financiers together.

Interview Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

01:54 – Why did you develop this course and why is it important?

03:21 – Who should take this course, and do they need a background in Finance?

05:19 – What subjects does the course cover?

06:43 – What will the students get out of the course?

07:18 – How can this course advance the students’ academic and career outcomes?

09:05 – What would you say to all potential students?

 

To learn more about this summer course, click HERE.  To enroll in this course, click HERE.

To learn more about all the summer courses offered by the UCLA Department of Communication, click HERE.

You may also learn more about all of UCLA’s summer courses HERE.

 

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LA Social Science interviews Dr. José Loya, a UCLA Assistant Professor in Urban Planning and a faculty affiliate with the Chicano Studies Research Center. His research examines racial stratification among Latinxs in the mortgage market. He discusses how discrimination in housing creates barriers for upward mobility in the Latinx community.

Interview Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

00:39 – Social stratification and racial discrimination in housing

01:03 – Article in Race and Social Problems Journal

02:12 – Research methods

02:51 – Interesting findings – tri-racial hierarchy

04:27 – Research impact on Latinx community

05:20 – Closing

 

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LA Social Science visits the UCLA Race, Ethnicity, Politics and Society (REPS) lab, directed by Dr. Efrén Pérez, Professor of Political Science and Psychology. As part of the Rising Scholar series, this video showcases his students who are working on cutting edge research on race and politics. The scholars present new publications and ongoing research projects. This research lab illustrates the power of research in the UCLA Social Sciences that centers the importance of diversity and has strong impacts on our society.

Interview Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

00:56 – Efrén Pérez provides overview of research projects and lab

11:09 – William Scott-Curtis

14:33 – Bianca Vicuña

16:39 – Crystal Robertson

19:44 – Alisson Ramos 

26:31 – Ying Xuan Chua

33:59 – Closing remarks

 

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Dr. Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Professor & Thomas E. Lifka Chair of History at UCLA, moderates the opening plenary with speakers Nicole Porter of The Sentencing Project; Lex Steppling of Policy, Dignity, and Power Now; and Cristina Jimenez Moreta of United We Dream.

February 22, 2022

By Alise Brillault

From January 20-21, 2022, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (UCLA LPPI) convened a diverse group of Latinx leaders for a virtual summit on criminal justice reform. “Advancing Criminal Justice Reform Through a 21st Century Latinx Lens (Part 2)” aimed to continue conversations that began at the first convening organized by UCLA LPPI in May 2021 and to deepen commitments to enacting policy change.

The event was sponsored by the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, Latino Justice PRLDEF, the MacArthur Foundation, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Drug Policy Alliance and highlighted criminal justice as a Latinx issue. Additionally, the event was focused on elevating models that drive cross-sectoral and multi-ethnic/multi-racial solidarity for collective liberation.

“As Latinos, we don’t always see ourselves as a part of the criminal justice reform movement,” said Jeannette Zanipatin, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “It’s seen as a Black and white issue, when in reality it is multiracial – especially in places like California. This convening highlighted not only how Latinos are impacted, but also what role we play in the movement.”

Over two days, coinciding with the week of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, more than 260 participants tuned in for conversations with 50 speakers who represented a diverse group of elected officials, academics, activists and media figures. Panel discussion topics included youth justice, drug decriminalization and reimagining systems of enforcement among others.

“In this second convening, our hope was to talk through the issues in a deeper, more intersectional and multiracial way,” said UCLA LPPI Policy Analyst Gabriella Carmona, one of the lead organizers of the event. “One of the discussions I was most excited to host was on Latinas in the carceral system. The panel was not only distinctly Latina but also multigenerational. It was inspiring to hear Dr. Juanita Diaz-Cotto, who wrote one of the first books on Latina/os in the criminal justice system, balance her ideas with women of younger generations carrying the mantle.”

Another panel highlighted the need to tackle anti-Blackness in the Latino community to work towards collective liberation. Janvieve Williams Comrie, executive director of Afroresistance, opened the session by providing historical context for the presence of Black communities throughout Latin America as a result of the transatlantic slave trade. Subsequently, the speakers engaged in a lively discussion about needing to recognize and uplift the experiences of Afro-Latinos in the criminal justice movement and beyond.

“When people think of the Latine community, they have a specific idea that looks the same and is reinforced by the media. Having a panel like this demonstrates the intersection of identity,” said moderator Jennifer Blemur, Director of Policy and Advocacy at The Coalition to Transform Advanced Care. “The compulsion is usually to put our best forward and focus on the positive, which we should do. But there are also some real things we need to address in our community that require action from us. We can’t build up our community while leaving people behind.”

In addition to facilitating these crucial conversations, a key objective of the two-day event was to produce a policy priorities document that centralizes Latinos across five areas in the criminal justice reform movement. This was done through interactive breakout sessions where participants were able to dive more deeply into issue areas and identify possible policy solutions. For example, one breakout session focused on “crimmigration,” or the intersection of immigration policy and the carceral system. The interactive format allowed event attendees to brainstorm pathways to ending the prison-to-deportation pipeline.

“There is a natural inclination for Latinos to gravitate towards immigrants’ rights issues, but the reality is that immigration touches so many different systems. The list of priorities we came up with took these cross-movement issues into account,” said Zanipatin, who moderated the session.

Nicole Porter, Senior Director of Advocacy at The Sentencing Project, was excited to participate as well. “The crimmigration breakout session was very relevant to the work I do and allowed for continued connection after the event was over,” she said.

Ultimately, the policy priorities document will be used as a jumping off point for UCLA LPPI to host quarterly stakeholder meetings along with the sponsors of the convening. “In 2022 and beyond, we’re looking forward to fostering a network of people who are deeply engaged and will proactively advocate for the changes we wish to see,” said Carmona.

DEFENDING SELF-DEFENSE: A CALL TO ACTION BY SURVIVED & PUNISHED
VIRTUAL WEBINAR ON THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022

Date: Thursday, March 3, 2022
Time: 3:00-4:30PM PST
Location: Online/Zoom (registration required)

REGISTER ONLINE

EVENT FLYER

Survivors of domestic and sexual violence who defend themselves are systemically targeted for punishment by the legal system. Join us for the launch of Defending Self-Defense, a community-based, survivor-centered research report that identifies key patterns in the criminalization of self-defense and recommendations to transform the conditions of criminalized survival.

This report is produced by Survived & Punished, Project Nia, and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women.

Survived and Punished (S&P) is a national organization that advocates for the decriminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence through community organizing, policy advocacy, and engaged research. S&P provides publications and organizing tools that help highlight the intersections of prisons and gender violence, as well as mobilize grassroots support for criminalized survivors. S&P also includes the following three local/regional affiliates: Love & Protect in Chicago, S&P New York, and S&P California. CSW’s Thinking Gender 2020 conference featured an art exhibit showcasing S&P’s work and accomplishments, as well as a keynote address by Mariame Kaba, a co-founder of Survived & Punished. Kaba is also the founder and director of Project Nia, a grassroots organization that fights to end youth incarceration.

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. Up to 1 hour of general MCLE credit will be available (see Further Readings below).


Event participants:

Survived & Punished

  • Mariame Kaba (respondent)

Defending Self-Defense Research Team

  • Alisa Bierria
  • Colby Lenz
  • Sydney Moon

Defending Self-Defense Survivor Advisory Council

  • Liyah Birru
  • Tewkunzi Green
  • Robbie Hall
  • Wendy Howard
  • Roshawn Knight
  • Ky Peterson
  • Anastazia Schmid

Further Readings:


Cosponsored by:

  • Criminal Justice Program at UCLA School of Law
  • Critical Race Studies Program at UCLA School of Law
  • Williams Institute
  • Department of Gender Studies

LA Social Science interviewed Dr. Marcus Hunter, Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the UCLA Division of Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, and Mr. Christian D. Green, M.A. in African American Studies at UCLA and current adjunct professor. They discussed their role on the national, local, and regional events celebrating the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that took place on January 18. Dr. Hunter participated in the 4th Annual National Day of Racial Healing. They discussed their work with legislators, media, and community-based organizations.  Specifically, they discuss the educational resources they are advocating to be part of the U.S. Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Commission and Reparations for African Americans and at the local level.

Learn more about the January 18 events HERE.

 

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On January 18th, 2022, the 4th Annual National Day of Racial Healing will take place. Alongside a slate of national, local, and regional events hosted and sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation, Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, the Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Division of the Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at UCLA, will be moderating a culminating panel on Facebook Live with Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Dr. Gail Christopher, and Dr. Ron Daniels. The panel will focus on and bring further awareness to legislative efforts on the Hill to enact the first-ever U.S. Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Commission and Reparations for African Americans.

RSVP for the virtual panel HERE.

For more information, click HERE.

Check back with LA Social Science for interviews and more posts regarding the issues discussed in this panel.

Faculty and researchers from UCLA’s Latino Politics and Policy Initiative in the Luskin School of Public Affairs are not only documenting the changing dynamics of voting in America. They also serve as champions of voting rights that will allow Latinos and other underrepresented groups to step into their political power.

Since 2014, the initiative has drawn on extensive research and real-time analysis of election cycles, diving into issues that impact voters of color—particularly Latinos, a population that represents the plurality of California and is the largest non-white ethnic group in the nation.

The group’s flagship advocacy effort, The Voting Rights Project played a role in shaping new voting rights legislation that has passed the U.S. House and is awaiting Senate action.

Led by UCLA alum Sonja Diaz as founding director, the goal of LPPI is to drive policy actions that address the needs of Latinos.

“Directing UCLA LPPI has provided an unparalleled opportunity to leverage my entrepreneurial skills with my passion for social change in my hometown,” Diaz said. “It has enabled me to put a bright spotlight on the issues that Latinos care about and the power I’ve seen in our communities since I was a child.  “It’s also created the space to develop data-backed policy for this incredibly diverse and complex population that far too few people have taken the time to really understand.”

Diaz and UCLA professor of political science Matt Barreto, who are both voting rights experts, testified during House hearings on the bill and offered solutions to combat recent attacks on access to the ballot box. Their testimony contributed to “Voting in America,” a report led by Subcommittee Chair G.K. Butterfield that was used to develop the new voting rights legislation.

Drawing on extensive research and real-time analysis of election cycles since 2014 into the behavior of voters of color – particularly Latinos – Diaz and Barreto outlined the changing dynamics of voting in America.

They highlighted how the American electorate is shifting due to growing numbers of young Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander voters and how voting rights have been curbed since Shelby v. Holder gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act through actions like voter ID laws and lack of multilingual ballots.

They also recommended steps our federal government should take to protect access to the ballot box in light of the 2021 redistricting cycle. UCLA LPPI’s work on the new voting rights legislation included an in-person briefing with Rep. Butterfield at UCLA Luskin with senior policy fellows and policy faculty experts.

“The architects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 sought to ensure all Americans were able to exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot in the face of widespread discrimination.” Diaz said. “While we have made real progress in curbing the racial discrimination of Jim Crow, we find ourselves in a new era of vote denial and suppression and we cannot go backward.”

With more than 400 bills in state legislatures across the nation aimed at restricting voting rights introduced this year, the work is vital for all Americans.

“We are at a critical moment in our democracy,” Barreto said. “As the demographics of the country shift toward being less white, those who have always held power are doing everything they can to retain it, including trying to restrict the fundamental right to vote.”

Without a comprehensive solution such as sweeping voting rights legislation will protects the rights to vote, Diaz said she is concerned that the country not only risks silencing the voices of youthful, diverse electorates but also jeopardizing our very democracy.

Within this context, Diaz and Barreto’s pivotal efforts to ensure all eligible voters can cast a meaningful ballot couldn’t be more critical, especially because those efforts are squarely focused on protecting Latinos and other communities of color.

To this end, in just the past year and a half, LPPI has released research highlighting opportunities to expand access to the ballot box through vote-by-mail, the increasing influence of voters of color and information into why some may want to limit their power.

They are advocating for the need for deep, meaningful and sustained engagement of growing electorates like Latinos and Asian Americans. In December 2020, the Voting Rights Project hosted a symposium bringing together voting rights practitioners, expert witnesses, and legal scholars from around the country. The convening explored a path forward to protect the right to vote and craft a 21st Century voting rights act.

The work to increase Latino political power and strengthen the voting rights of underrepresented Americans is personal for Diaz. She marched in the streets with her parents to protest Prop 187, a California ballot proposition passed in 1994 that sought to restrict access to public services for undocumented immigrants.

“Protesting on the streets served as my first education in the power of the vote,” Diaz said. “It’s where I decided that I would use my power to advance equitable policy and expand civil rights, so that dignity and opportunity are not limited to where you live or how you identify, but accessible to everyone.”