Skin Color and Cardiometabolic Diseases among Black Populations in the United States

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 16. Immigration and health / health care

Abstract

Since the 1970s, dozens of studies have documented a skin color gradient in hypertension, diabetes, and obesity among African Americans, with darker skin associated with greater cardiometabolic risk. Over roughly the same period, the foreign-born Black population in the United States has grown rapidly and now comprises more than 10 percent of the Black population. Yet no study has examined whether the well-known skin color gradient among African Americans also characterizes Black immigrants. Drawing on ethnoracism theory and data from the National Survey of American Life (2001–2003), I assess the relationship between self-reported skin color and cardiometabolic disease separately for African Americans, foreign-born Afro-Caribbeans, and second-generation Afro-Caribbeans. Because African Americans are historically embedded in the ethnoracial order produced by American slavery, darker skin may more strongly index canonical forms of “American Blackness” and their associated stereotypes. In contrast, Black immigrants, whose ancestry lies outside the specific colonial formation of American slavery, may be ethnoracialized differently despite sharing similar phenotypic variation.After accounting for socioeconomic status, health behaviors, subjective social status, psychosocial stress, and perceived discrimination, I find a persistent skin color gradient in cardiometabolic disease among African Americans but no gradient among Afro-Caribbeans. These findings challenge genetic interpretations of color gradients on these and other health outcomes and suggest that skin color operates as a contextually activated social signal rather than a marker of innate biological risk. I conclude by calling for greater theoretical attention to ethnoracial distinctions in the study of race, ethnicity, migration, and population health.

Author

• Mosi Adesina Ifatunji, University of Wisconsin-Madison