Racial and Ethnic Harassment in Local Communities by

Abstract: This paper contributes to the emerging literature on racial and ethnic harassment by assessing the relationship between the characteristics of local communities and the propensity for outsiders to be victims of racial and ethnic hostility. Using unique data for a sample of active-duty military personnel captured in the Armed Forces Equal Opportunity Survey, we find that the racial composition of the local community is closely tied to racial and ethnic harassment. Moreover, economic vulnerability may lead to more racial and ethnic tension, though the effects are diverse across different minority groups and depend upon our definition of local communities.