Are Within-Racial Group Inequalities by Skin Color Greater Than Inequalities Between Racial Groups in the United States?

Abstract

The author examines the relationship between skin color and educational and labor market outcomes within White, Black, and Hispanic populations in the United States. By analyzing National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 data, the author challenges claims that intraracial inequalities on the basis of skin color match or surpass inequalities among ethnoracial groups. The findings indicate that although a darker skin tone correlates with less favorable outcomes across all ethnoracial groups, disparities along the color continuum within the Black population are less pronounced than those between Blacks and Whites as a whole. For Hispanics, the significance of between- and within-race inequality varies depending on the outcome. These insights remain consistent both in descriptive analysis and after adjusting for socioeconomic origins.