Multiracial populations increased faster than any single race in the most recent U.S. census. However, we know little about how this shift might impact the political attitudes of monoracial Americans. Drawing on literatures in racial politics and social psychology, this article addresses this question by examining how learning about African Americans with Irish ancestry impacts Irish Americans' racial attitudes. Findings from a survey of Irish Americans show that identifying as Irish American predicts implicit and explicit prejudice toward Black Americans. However, a survey experiment reveals that correcting Irish Americans’ underestimations of the proportion of African Americans with Irish ancestry decreases racial prejudice among Irish Americans who identify as Irish American. In other words, learning about a shared ancestry with African Americans reduces racial prejudice among those Irish Americans most predisposed to prejudice. Open-ended survey responses offer two possible explanations: the potential for multiracialism to reduce racial essentialism and increase perceptions of closeness across race.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jasmine English is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and will be an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Reed College (2025-).

Jasmine’s research focuses on political behavior, interracial solidarity, and the carceral state in American politics. Ongoing projects on interracial solidarity examine how learning about African Americans with Irish ancestry impacts Irish Americans’ racial attitudes. Her work on the carceral state includes projects on “carceral political discussion” and the impact of militarized policing on perceptions of the Black Lives Matter movement. Jasmine’s research has been published in the American Political Science Review, Politics, Groups, and Identities, and is forthcoming at Perspectives on Politics. She has received several awards for her research, including best paper awards from the American Political Science Association (APSA) sections on Interpretive Methods and Qualitative and Multi-Method Research. 

Jasmine received her PhD in Political Science from MIT in 2024. She received her BA from UCLA, where she graduated with degrees in Political Science and Economics. Jasmine is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

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