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Colorism is a form of discrimination based on skin tone wherein people with light(er) complexions are advantaged over those with dark(er) ones. In this review, we define key terms, explore colorism as an individual and structural phenomenon, and identify some predominant themes in the existing scholarship on colorism. We review three case studies of contemporary uses and ramifications of colorism in order to encourage scholars to engage with this important field. These case studies are skin tone’s impact on U.S. politics, “transraciality,” the appropriation of skin tone, and finally, the global skin lightening industry. While the first two are mostly focused on the United States, the third enables an appreciation of the global dynamics of colorism, and links back to the national and regional contextual politics of skin tone.

Several different measures of skin color are popular in social science surveys, yet we have little evidence to suggest which method is the most valid or reliable when we design new studies. In this experiment, we compare three different ways of asking raters to evaluate skin tone, testing whether common methods designed to reduce variation across raters from different social groups are effective. We compare two popular scales: a simple text-based 5-point skin tone scale (which asks raters to classify pictures on a scale from very light to very dark) and a newer 10-point palette-based skin tone scale (which asks raters to choose a number from 1 to 10, with pictures associated with each number). We also ask raters to use a more complex two-axis color grid that we created, in order to test whether addressing common criticisms of the palette-based scales improves rating reliability. Experiment participants rated a randomly selected subset of pictures with a wide range of skin tones. We find that demographic characteristics of the raters such as gender, race, their amount of contact with diverse racial groups, and immigration status affect skin tone ratings that observers assign, no matter what type of measure is used, and the three measures have reliability ratings that are statistically similar. We discuss the implications of the differences between the measures for designing social science surveys and interview studies.

How do Black, Latinx, and White people who believe they are mistaken as a member of another racial group perceive the amount of racial discrimination they experience, and what role does skin tone play? Using the Texas Diversity Survey (TDS), I analyze the amount of discrimination Black people, Latinxs, and Whites report when they believe others do not see them as their self-identified race. The data show that skin tone is connected to racial identity mismatch for all aforementioned groups. In addition, Latinxs with lighter- or darker-skin who believe others see them as Latinx report more racial discrimination than medium-skinned Latinxs who believe strangers do not see them as Latinx; Whites with darker-skin who believe others see them as White report less discrimination; and age is one of the most significant predictors of discrimination for Black and White respondents. I suggest that the Black-White binary continues to divide Black and White people across identity measures and emphasizes how racial identity is quite complex for Latinxs. The inter-related nature of these concepts means that if we better understand one aspect, we have a more accurate conceptualization of race in the twenty-first century and are closer to exposing the various factors connected to racial discrimination, particularly as the percentage of racial minorities in the USA increases. This timely work has implications for racial discrimination among relatively stable groups (Black and White people) and the largest and fastest growing minority group in the USA (Latinxs).

In this era of growing immigration and debates about the U.S.-Mexico Border, the authors tackle a question that is growing in importance as the Border is at the forefront of national debate: Do people (White or Latinx) who believe that they are seen as Latinx experience more community division on the basis of proximity to the Border? The authors use data from the 2015 Texas Diversity Survey to examine the experience of racialization for people living in different social environments. The authors find that Latinxs who live closer the U.S.-Mexico Border are more likely to believe that they are perceived by others as Latinx, demonstrating how racialization is contextual and variable across space. The authors show that these differences are consequential for a sense of community division: Latinxs feel more community division when they live closer to the Border and believe that strangers see them as Latinx, even after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, gender, age, and characteristics of the place where respondents live. In sum, the authors find important relationships between reflected race, proximity to the Border, and the construction of community division.

Racist incidents are moments that highlight the systemic racism that still exists within higher education. In 2016, the College of Liberal Arts at a historically White, Southern institution in the U.S. responded to a racist incident on campus by setting up a series of ‘Difficult Dialogue on Campus Race Relations’ sessions that gave participants the opportunity to reflect and respond to the incident. Drawing on literature about racial dialogues and social identity theory, the sessions were designed to promote active listening, build empathy, and provide practical tools to combat everyday racial microaggressions. We describe how communication design elements (such as small group settings, localized case studies, role-play, and ground rules) were tailored to fit the needs of various group settings and analyze participants’ feedback about the perceived impact of these dialogues. We present a goal-based dialogue framework as a model to facilitate difficult dialogues in a variety of applied communicatio...

Are people of color with close relationships with whites more likely to embrace colorblind racial ideologies (CBRI)? Using restricted data from waves 1 and 2 of the Portraits of American Life Study ( N = 2,713), collected in 2006 and 2012, we test whether black, Latina/o, and Asian respondents are more likely to express colorblind racial attitudes if they have an intimate partner or close friends who are white. We use ordinal logit models to examine seven CBRI attitudinal items, controlling for the respondent’s socioeconomic characteristics, immigrant generation, national origin, gender, age, characteristics of the city, and region. Although black, Latina/o, and Asian respondents are less likely to express CBRI than whites are, respondents of color with close relationships with whites are more likely to minimize certain types of racism, even after controlling for other characteristics of the individual. We discuss the implications of these findings, considering the patterns of antiblack and anti-immigrant attitudes among groups of color and placing them in the context of the more negative attitudes often expressed by whites. We also describe how other demographic patterns in these attitudes could shape future trends in attitudes and suggest possible interventions.

In addition to performing racial identity on Black Twitter, Black users also use the platform to host discourse on Blackness. Tweets, hashtags, and trends associated with the television show How to...

The original version of this article unfortunately contained two errors, which the author has corrected below

In this chapter, we first identify the major theories of family used by family scientists to aid in our understanding about families. We also identify the specific theories that have been developed to examine the biracial/multiracial individuals. We then map these theories across the typology of biracial identity (Rockquemore, Race and Society, 1(2):197–212, 1999; Rockquemore, Brunsma, Beyond black: Biracial identity in America. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, Lanham, MD, 2008) to assess their utility in helping to explicate issues that we have identified as relevant for our discussion. Finally, we offer critiques of these theories and conclude with the idea as to how the theories can be improved to help us in our understanding of biracial/multiracial families in contemporary America.

As interracial relationships become less taboo in the United States in the 21st century, the number of interracial relationships has increased. Intermarriage has more than doubled from 1980 (6.7%) to 2010 (15%) (Wang, 2012). Among newlyweds in 2010, 17% of Blacks married someone of a different race (Wang, 2012).