There is a large body of literature that gives evidence to the stratifying role of skin color, especially among ethnoracial minorities.
In light of the growing ethnoracial diversity in the United States, identifying determinants of interethnic and interracial relationships, including informal nonmarital relationships, may help uncover mechanisms that can reduce the nation’s ethnoracial divides.Īn underexplored determinant of intergroup friendships is skin color. According to Grace Kao and colleagues ( Reference Kao, Joyner and Balistreri2019), for both Asian men and women, the percentage of those who report an intergroup romantic relationship in young adulthood is approximately twice as high among those who had at least one intergroup friendship during adolescence in comparison to those who did not have any cross-ethnoracial friendships.
Having friends of different ethnoracial origins is associated with being in a romantic cross-ethnoracial relationship later in life (Kao et al., Reference Kao, Joyner and Balistreri2019 Shiao Reference Shiao2018 Van Zantvliet and Kalmijn, Reference Van Zantvliet and Kalmijn2013). Among White people, cross-ethnoracial friendships can reduce feelings of social distance to ethnoracial minorities (Fischer Reference Fischer2011). According to the social psychology literature, contact with members of another ethnoracial group can help reduce prejudice toward that group (Allport Reference Allport1954 Tropp and Pettigrew, Reference Tropp and Pettigrew2005). The social network of the average White person is 91% homogeneous whereas for the typical Black and Latino respondents, the networks are 83% and 64% homogeneous, respectively.Īlthough intergroup friendships may be infrequent, they can have great implications for U.S. Footnote 1 In spite of this increasing ethnoracial diversity, a report by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that, on average, most friendships are ethnoracially homogeneous (Cox et al., Reference Cox, Navarro-Rivera and Jones2016). population will be White due to the growing population shares of Asians and Latinos. The Pew Research Center ( 2015) predicts that by 2055, less than half of the U.S. There is also limited evidence that darker-skinned members of a higher status group, specifically Asians, have a greater likelihood of having close friends from a lower status group. I argue that lighter-skinned members of lower status ethnoracial groups have a greater likelihood of having close friendships with members of higher status ethnoracial groups.
Skin deep org series#
This study seeks to answer two questions: For ethnoracial minorities, how is an individual’s skin color associated with the likelihood that they will engage in a cross-ethnoracial friendship? Does the role of skin color depend on the ethnoracial combination of the two groups that befriend one another? Using waves 1, 2, and 3 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen and a series of multinomial logit models, the results suggest that the role of skin color is a function of the relative levels of social status of the two ethnoracial groups that befriend one another. One unexplored factor is the role of an individual’s skin color in influencing their opportunities to befriend members of other ethnoracial groups. A large body of literature has explored possible determinants for the formation of these friendships. Friendships between members of different ethnoracial groups can help to reduce prejudice and ease tensions across ethnoracial groups.
0 kommentar(er)
