Interpersonal discrimination against Hmong Americans: Parallels and variation in microlevel racial inequality

Different racial and ethnic minorities are commonly compared across various measures of macrolevel inequality but have thus far not been compared with respect to microlevel inequality. Using data from interviews with forty-ei ght Hmong Americans, this article systematically extends Feagin's (1991) an alysis of interpersonal discrimination against African Americans to the exp eriences of everyday racism among a group of foreign-born Asian Americans. Hmong Americans report all of the forms of interpersonal discrimination tha t Feagin documents for African Americans, suggesting that minorities face a common inequality structure in public face-to-face encounters. Nativism an d limited English proficiency, two factors that Feagin did not identify as affecting African Americans, are also important components of interpersonal discrimination against Hmong Americans. These additional dimensions of int erpersonal discrimination suggest that macrolevel patterns of racial and et hnic inequality can lead to variation in microlevel inequality.