Seventeenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

In 2020, one-in-ten eligible US voters is between the ages 18 and 23, and 18% of eligible American voters are non-Black minorities—nearly double that demographic’s share of voters in 2000. Whether one seeks to comprehend if most of this population will remain a “sleeping giant that will never wake,” or concurs with proclamations that those who constitute what sociologist Eileen O’Brien has helped dub “the racial middle” (2008) will “determine” the United States’ next leaders, one must agree that key to understanding the potential and power of the racial middle is understanding its young adults, and what informs their attitudes and behaviors regarding civic and/ or political engagement. This paper illuminates this by sharing preliminary findings about how American young adults who self-identify as Asian, Hispanic or Latinx, Native, Pacific Islander, and/ or mixed perceive the US racial order and themselves in it, the social problems they feel most affected by, how parents and/ or communities shape their sense of the risks and responsibilities of engaging in outside activities “not just for myself”, and possible implications of the rise of the US racial middle for greater US society. These findings are part of a qualitative study including interviews with 50 young adults in the US Midwest, Northeast, Pacific, South, and West Coast.