Xenophobic narratives that describe Latinx immigrants as culturally deficient, threatening, and undeserving lawbreakers have received extensive scrutiny from the public and academics alike. However, few scholars have examined the positive narratives that surround this group, an especially important line of inquiry given the nature and prevalence of colorblind racial ideology today. In this paper, we consider how (seemingly) positive elite news media discourse contributes to the racialization of Latinx immigrants. We analyzed 1383 frames derived from newspaper articles appearing on the front page of The New York Times between 2001 and 2019. We found that even supportive articles contribute to the racialization of this group by subtly reinforcing boundaries between “us” and “them,” especially when compared to positive articles about non-Latinx immigrants. Specifically, positive newspaper articles portrayed Latinx immigrants as economically exploitable, as vulnerable but blameworthy, and as mostly illegal. We also found that positive newspaper articles portrayed both Latinx and non-Latinx immigrants as devoted to their families and traditional gender roles. However, we argue that this depiction reinforces a hierarchy based on White notions of deservingness. Our analysis shows the flexibility of colorblind discourse to prop up existing racial hierarchies in U.S. society and to “Other” racial and ethnic minorities.

仇外言论将拉丁裔移民描述为缺乏文化，威胁和不当的违法者，受到了公众和学者的广泛审查。但是，很少有学者研究围绕这一群体的正面叙述，考虑到当今色盲种族意识形态的性质和普遍性，这是一个特别重要的研究领域。在本文中，我们考虑了积极的精英新闻媒体话语如何（似乎）促进了拉丁移民的种族化。我们分析了《纽约时报》首页上报纸文章的1383帧在2001年至2019年之间。我们发现，甚至支持性文章也通过巧妙地加强“我们”与“他们”之间的界限而促进了该群体的种族化，尤其是与非拉丁裔移民的正面文章相比。具体而言，积极的报纸文章将拉丁裔移民描绘为经济上可剥削，脆弱但应受指责的移民，并且大多是非法移民。我们还发现，积极的报纸文章将拉丁裔和非拉丁裔移民描述为致力于家庭和传统性别角色。但是，我们认为，这种描述加强了基于怀有意识的怀特概念的层次结构。我们的分析表明，色盲话语可以灵活地支持美国社会中现有的种族等级制度以及“其他”种族和少数族裔。