Complicating Colorism: Race, Skin Color, and the Likelihood of Arrest

• In Event: 514 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Paper Session. How and Why Black and Brown Lives Matter

Abstract

Both conventional public beliefs and existing academic research on colorism presuppose that skin color predicts social outcomes only among minorities, while Whites enjoy a categorical advantage of lighter skin but no consequence of variation within that category. We test this assumption in a sample of White and Black American men by considering the relationship between skin color and the likelihood of arrest, using a continuous measure of color as the percentage of light reflected off the skin. Contrary to findings for longer-term socioeconomic outcomes, we find that Black men’s probability of arrest remains constant across the spectrum of skin color, while White men’s probability of arrest decreases continuously with lighter skin. Beyond posing an exception to the modern conception of colorism, our results have implications for efforts to ameliorate the epidemic of incarceration among Black men, as well as for understanding how elements of visible phenotype may serve as a unique category of predictors in models of social inequality.

Authors

• Amelia R. Branigan, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Jeremy Freese, Stanford University

• Christopher Wildeman, Cornell University

• Catarina Kiefe, University of Massachusetts