Immigrant Skin Color Discrimination?
Light-skinned immigrants in the United States make more money on average than those with darker complexions, and the chief reason appears to be discrimination, a researcher says.
Joni Hersch, a law and economics professor at Vanderbilt University, looked at a government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the United States from around the world and found that those with the lightest skin earned an average of 8 percent to 15 percent more than similar immigrants with much darker skin.
"On average, being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education," Hersch said.
The study also found that taller immigrants earn more than shorter ones, with an extra inch of height associated with a 1 percent increase in income.
Other researchers said the findings are consistent with other studies on color and point to a skin-tone prejudice that goes beyond race.
Hersch took into consideration other factors that could affect wages, such as English-language proficiency, education, occupation, race or country of origin, and found that skin tone still seemed to make a difference in earnings.
That means that if two similar immigrants from Bangladesh, for example, came to the United States at the same time, with the same occupation and ability to speak English, the lighter-skinned immigrant would make more money on average.
"I thought that once we controlled for race and nationality, I expected the difference to go away, but even with people from the same country, the same race — skin color really matters," she said, "and height."
Although many cultures show a bias toward lighter skin, Hersch said her analysis shows that the skin-color advantage was not due to preferential treatment for light-skinned people in their country of origin. The bias, she said, occurs in the U.S.
Economics professor Shelley White-Means of the University of Tennessee at Memphis said the study adds to the growing body of evidence that there is a "preference for whiteness" in America that goes beyond race.
Hersch drew her data from a 2003 federal survey of nearly 8,600 new immigrants. The survey used an 11-point scale for measuring skin tone, in which 0 represents an absence of color and 10 the darkest possible skin tone.
From those nearly 8,600 participants, she focused on the more than 2,000 who were working and whose skin tone had been recorded during face-to-face interviews.
William Darity Jr., an economics professor at the University of North Carolina, said Hersch's findings are similar to a study he co-authored last year on skin tone and wages among blacks.
"We estimate that dark- or medium-skinned blacks suffered a discriminatory penalty of anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent relative to whites," he said. "This suggests people cue into appearance and draw inferences about capabilities and skills based on how they look."
Darity said it is not clear whether the bias is conscious or subconscious.
Hersch said her findings, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science next month in San Francisco, could support discrimination lawsuits based not on race, but on color.
"There are very few color discrimination suits, but they are on the rise," she said. "But these suits can be hard to prove."
© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Joni Hersch, a law and economics professor at Vanderbilt University, looked at a government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the United States from around the world and found that those with the lightest skin earned an average of 8 percent to 15 percent more than similar immigrants with much darker skin.
"On average, being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education," Hersch said.
The study also found that taller immigrants earn more than shorter ones, with an extra inch of height associated with a 1 percent increase in income.
Other researchers said the findings are consistent with other studies on color and point to a skin-tone prejudice that goes beyond race.
Hersch took into consideration other factors that could affect wages, such as English-language proficiency, education, occupation, race or country of origin, and found that skin tone still seemed to make a difference in earnings.
That means that if two similar immigrants from Bangladesh, for example, came to the United States at the same time, with the same occupation and ability to speak English, the lighter-skinned immigrant would make more money on average.
"I thought that once we controlled for race and nationality, I expected the difference to go away, but even with people from the same country, the same race — skin color really matters," she said, "and height."
Although many cultures show a bias toward lighter skin, Hersch said her analysis shows that the skin-color advantage was not due to preferential treatment for light-skinned people in their country of origin. The bias, she said, occurs in the U.S.
Economics professor Shelley White-Means of the University of Tennessee at Memphis said the study adds to the growing body of evidence that there is a "preference for whiteness" in America that goes beyond race.
Hersch drew her data from a 2003 federal survey of nearly 8,600 new immigrants. The survey used an 11-point scale for measuring skin tone, in which 0 represents an absence of color and 10 the darkest possible skin tone.
From those nearly 8,600 participants, she focused on the more than 2,000 who were working and whose skin tone had been recorded during face-to-face interviews.
William Darity Jr., an economics professor at the University of North Carolina, said Hersch's findings are similar to a study he co-authored last year on skin tone and wages among blacks.
"We estimate that dark- or medium-skinned blacks suffered a discriminatory penalty of anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent relative to whites," he said. "This suggests people cue into appearance and draw inferences about capabilities and skills based on how they look."
Darity said it is not clear whether the bias is conscious or subconscious.
Hersch said her findings, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science next month in San Francisco, could support discrimination lawsuits based not on race, but on color.
"There are very few color discrimination suits, but they are on the rise," she said. "But these suits can be hard to prove."
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A friend of mine who is a very light skinned Mexican from some place in Southern Mexico and looks more like if he came out of Rome than from a Oaxaca, well he applied for a scholarship to go to Medical School in Texas, and you know the old stereotype Texans had of all Mexicans as short, brown guys, well even though he is graduating at the top of his class he didn't get anywhere in Texas because in every interview they couldn't swallow in their "Alamo mind" the idea of a white Mexican (except Santa Anna perhaps).
All I know is another guy in the same position, but dark and small (no sombrero I'm afraid) got it.
Go figure!
A friend of mine who is a very light skinned Mexican from some place in Southern Mexico and looks more like if he came out of Rome than from a Oaxaca, well he applied for a scholarship to go to Medical School in Texas, and you know the old stereotype Texans had of all Mexicans as short, brown guys, well even though he is graduating at the top of his class he didn't get anywhere in Texas because in every interview they couldn't swallow in their "Alamo mind" the idea of a white Mexican (except Santa Anna perhaps).
All I know is another guy in the same position, but dark and small (no sombrero I'm afraid) got it.
Go figure!
golden-skinned multi Irish/Lakota/Black) who recently had a medium-brown guy tell me he didn't want to hang out with a half-breed at a party..i have had white people help me out more than my own family did. I am glad that I have been able to get along with a huge range of colors..my favorite guys (right now) are dark skinned, buy i am sure a hot red-headed Aussie awaits me down under. BLIMY!
By the way, I've lived in almost every major east coast city from Boston on down to Miami. I've also lived in Detroit. I've lived in all types of neighbourhoods, inner city urban to the boring suburbs, amongst all types of people of all income levels. I have never had anyone treat me bad- of any colour, nationality, religion, or lifestyle.
Although one time, a few days after a new family moved in the neighourhood, I greeted the wife on the street & she asked me how I liked my gardener & if I would recommend him to her. I informed her I didn't have a gardener. She said that she saw "the mexican guy" mowing my lawn the previous saturday. I told her that he isn't mexican, he's certainly no gardener (I'm lucky when I can just get him to mow the lawn), but he is my husband, but not for hire. She relpied "Well, he certainly looks mexican." When asked what mexicans looked like to her she answered "Brown, but not as dark as blacks."
Sigh.
We all have a long way to go.
Then you don't work in the inner city like I do. There are 13 white people that work in a department of 400 blacks. And we have seen the hate from some of them toward us. They would be happy for all of us to be gone. We have all had it up in our face. But being the nice white puppets we are, we turn the other cheek.
There are ignorant people in every race and I still believe alot of dark immigrants want an easy way to easy street and they use racial discrimination to get where they want to be.
A year ago I asked a co-worker of mine if he had a good weekend when he got to work on Monday and he told me that he survived his weekend because no one burned a cross on his lawn. When I tried to file an EEO complaint it was somehow lost.. 3 times. I had 3 witnesses to his outburst and they were black and were appalled at what he said to me and were willing to verify the events, but I was NEVER contacted by EEO and when I finally contacted the main office, they told me the time limit to file was passed. So racism goes both ways, but only one side is heard.
So I have had it up in my face more than you will know. Just move to the inner city somewhere and the tables will be turned. Your husband will blend in easily but I bet you won't.
But I know, & have seen, many people who have experienced this. And it's heart breaking when my husband & I approach a store, hotel, bank counter & I'm the one who's addressed w/warm greeting by the staff, but my husband is told to step back & wait his turn. When I say, "He's my husband, we're together" we're often given the "shifty eye" & they continue to address me, but ignore him (like he's a dog or a child).
I'm not saying this happens all the time, but it happens enough to make it expected. He's a dark skinned latino, hard working, family loving, tax paying citizen, but he's felt the wrath of the "immigrant haters". He's had racial slurs yelled at him in the street. Not me!
Unless you experience this yourself, you can't possibly understand how it feels.
Posted by too_bad_4_U at 12:40 PM : Jan 27, 2007"
Every last white person does not have to be "racist" for the white collective/the white 'powers that be' to be tagged as racist.
Just a significant MAJORITY will do!
Matter of fact, for very very good/natural reason, it is going to be highly unlikely that every last white person is going to be filled with the kind of deep seated ignorance and lack of appreciation for human diversity, and the simultaneously harboring of the ill will that defines him as racist. LOL
Regardless of what you believe, most white Americans, don't agree with your ranting. Most of us associate with all races without a problem. If there were 2 immigrants sitting next to me on the bus, I would speak to both as would most white Americans. I know I see a human being and an interesting person no matter the color. And I would never judge someone's legality on a bus. That is not my job. It is people like you that keep racism spreading. Stop making assumptions about how all people treat other people based on the color of their skin. Those that have this need to separate color for reasons of discrimination are those of color that just don't want to excel on their own and want it all handed to them. It is the people that can't deal with their own rejection to a position or other instance in life and then hurry to pull out the race card. Don't judge the entire white race as being racist because that is so far from the truth. But people like you will keep that ideal out there in front to keep racism alive and to blame the whites! You make it almost impossible for other races to advance because you and others that think like you have racism and discrimination burned into their head. You are the ones holding back the minorities because you fill their heads with such lies.