Perceived Classification among Black People: New Estimates and Revelations from Skin Tone, Multiracial Status, and Ethnicity

• In Event: New Approaches to Racial and Ethnic Classification and Identity

Abstract

Prevailing models of inequality often struggle to reconcile categorical and gradational distinctions, in effect compartmentalizing “cues of categories.” For instance, ever since DuBois’ “problem of the color line,” color has remained difficult to fully reconcile with racialized categorizations. Perceptions of socially assigned race often are assumed to be fairly homogenous among Black people. We contend that skin tone organizes perceived classification, along with intersecting identities of ethnicity and multiracial status. Drawing on the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey and 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we find that chronic experiences of “misclassification” as non-Black occur for between 5 and 9% of monoracial Black people — and are several times more common among lighter-skinned, Caribbean, Latinx, and multiracial Black people, ranging from about 20% to 55%. These experiences are linked to substantially heightened distress, poor mental health days, and lifetime occurrence of any depressive episode. Future research should continue to examine social perceptions of race as they inform Black-White disparities in social stress and mental health.

Authors

• Tamunosaki Tariah Ibiesigha Bilaye-Benibo, Baylor University

• Matthew Andersson, Baylor University