Abstract For many decades now, social scientists have documented immense ethnoracial inequalities in the United States. Much of this work is rooted in comparing the life chances, trajectories, and outcomes of African Americans to White Americans. From health to wealth and nearly every measure of well-being, success, and thriving one can find, White Americans remain ahead of Black Americans. What this focus on ethnoracial inequality between “groups” obscures, however, is long-standing skin tone inequality within groups. In this essay, I trace the trajectory of colorism and skin tone stratification in the United States over the past century. Next, I high-light the contemporary persistence of skin tone stratification, not only among African Americans, but among Latinx and Asian Americans as well. I conclude by arguing that future research on colorism will be essential to understand comprehensively the significance of race/ethnicity in a demographically shifting United States (such as immigration and “multiraciality”).

中文翻译：

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色彩主义的持续意义：美国的肤色分层

摘要 几十年来，社会科学家记录了美国巨大的种族不平等现象。这项工作的大部分植根于将非洲裔美国人与白人美国人的生活机会、轨迹和结果进行比较。从健康到财富，以及几乎每一个幸福、成功和繁荣的衡量标准，美国白人仍然领先于美国黑人。然而，这种对“群体”之间种族不平等的关注掩盖了群体内部长期存在的肤色不平等。在这篇文章中，我追溯了过去一个世纪美国色彩主义和肤色分层的轨迹。接下来，我强​​调肤色分层的当代持续存在，不仅在非裔美国人中，而且在拉丁裔和亚裔美国人中也是如此。