ERIC Number: ED650671
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Cumulative Effects of Colorism: Race, Wealth, and Skin Tone
Alexander Adames
Grantee Submission, Social Forces v102 p539-560 2023
Researchers have long documented a persistent Black-White gap in wealth. These studies, however, often treat race as a discrete category, eluding its socially constructed nature. As a result, these studies assume that the "effect of race" is consistent across all individuals racialized as Black. Studies that make this assumption potentially obscure heterogeneity in the size of the Black-White wealth gap. Research on skin color stratification suggests that it is possible that the Black-White wealth gap varies by the extent to which a racial subgroup is deemed to fit the broader racial umbrella. In turn, I adopt a more complex operationalization of race that is based on both racial and skin tone appraisals. Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I find that the Black-White wealth gap does vary by the Black skin tone subgroup. Generally, the Black-White gap in assets is smallest when focusing on lighter-skin Black people and largest when focusing on darker-skin Black people. These differences are not only the result of initial disadvantage but also cumulative disadvantage in the rate of wealth accumulation. Lastly, the findings suggest that the Black-White wealth gaps grow at a faster rate than the skin tone wealth gaps. I found that differences were robust to adjustments for parental socioeconomic status, childhood background, and interviewer characteristics. I conclude by discussing the theoretical implications for our understanding of the mechanisms undergirding Black-White disparities in wealth attainment.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305B200035
Author Affiliations: N/A