Business owners can’t afford to base their decisions on stereotypes when marketing to Latinos, according to a recent study.
A recent nationwide survey of non-Latinos by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Latino Decisions showed that the words “Latino” and “illegal immigrant” are interchangeable. The poll, according to BizJournals.com also revealed that more than 30 percent of non-Latinos believe most of Latinos are undocumented.
The truth is that 18 percent of Latinos are undocumented, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. For example, Arizona is home to 360,000 undocumented immigrants out of a total state Latino population of 1.9 million, according to the 2010 census.
Half of the non-Latinos polled said the phrases “welfare recipient” and “less well-educated” accurately describe the U.S. Latino population.
“There is widespread exposure to negative stereotypes of Latinos in the media, and exposure to these images and stereotypes does have a causal effect on people’s perceptions,” says Matt Barreto, a political scientist at Latino Decisions.
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