NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT:Compositional and Sociocultural Forces

Both kinds of evidence are important. While indications of difference or change in demographic composition may reflect both social-structural behav- ioral and subjective-perceptual cultural change, compositional differences or change alone may not necessarily reflect or induce more deep-seated and underlying sociocultural shifts. This point is illustrated later by an example involving intermarriage. Moreover, compositional and sociocultural forces may often reflect changes that operate in opposing directions and thus offset each other to varying degrees. If one is greater than the other, first-order empir- ical observations may lead to the inference that the one associated with the stronger force is the only one at work, since evidence of the operation of the weaker force becomes masked under such conditions.

Intermarriage provides a good example of this sort of dilemma. Sociologists often proclaim that intermarriage is the litmus test of assimilation, its existence providing particular indication of strong acculturation (Gilbertson, Fitzpatrick, and Yang 1996; Gordon 1964; Kalmijn 1993, 1998; Lee and Bean 2004; Lee and Fernandez 1998; Lieberson and Waters 1988; Moran 2001; Perlmann and Waters 2004; Qian and Lichter 2007; Rosenfeld 2002). However, if a minor- ity group is growing in numbers enough to increase its relative group size (a compositional change), the probability of exogamy for an individual in the group decreases (that is, the probability of in-group marriage increases) by dint of this factor alone.

In the first category is information that is demographic-compositional and enables us to examine, across places and time, population-based measures of diversity and the prevalence of events such as intermarriage and multiracial iden- tification. The second type of information is cultural-perceptual and enables us to assess experiences with and subjective views about these phenomena.

Population information from official government sources, including changes in the approach of the U.S. census to issues of race, and responses to cen- sus questions concerning racial and ethnic categories

2. In-depth subjective interview data from our own studies of the ways Californians experience and view racial status and divides, including per- ceptions of intermarriage and multiracial identification