Hair as Phenotype: Texture, Measurement & Racialized Meaning

• In Event: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table Seven: Racial Formation as Reified through the Social Structure, Cultural Experiences, and Multi-Media Consumption

Abstract

The study of human hair texture reveals its profound role in constructing identity and navigating systems of power. Across a spectrum from coily to straight textures, hair has been leveraged as a marker for societal stratification. Measuring hair texture is crucial for understanding racial discrimination and racialization in the social sciences, as it highlights the ways hair-based biases intersect with broader patterns of societal inequities. This paper introduces the Irizarry Hair Texture Scale (IHT), a novel framework that captures both the physical and socio-cultural dimsensions of hair texture. Using the IHT, the goal of this study is to to investigate the salience of hair texture as a distinct marker of racialization. Our primary research questions is: Accounting for race and skin tone, how does hair texture and style contribute to our understanding of racialization and discrimination. Overall, net skin tone, hair texture serves as a significant predictor of both street race and lifetime discrimination.

Authors

• Yasmiyn Irizarry, University of Texas at Austin

• Jasmyne Nelson, University of Texas-Austin

• Shannon Aguirre

• Cameron Rua-Smith, University of Texas-Austin