Abstract
A Rainbow or a Chain: Race, Color and Inequality in a Multiracial Context by Mary Campbell
As recognition of multiracial groups has increased in recent years, there has been considerable debate about what the inclusion of these groups in our discussion of inequality might teach us about the future of racial inequality in the United States. Scholars assessing the changing racial terrain of the United States have asked whether we are headed toward a society that embraces a more nuanced view of race (moving towards a Latin American model of colorism), or whether there is a hardening racial divide consistently keeping specific groups at the bottom of the hierarchy (such as a divide between those who are black and those who are not).
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on the educational outcomes of multiracial and single-race Americans, I investigate how adding multiracial categories to our analysis changes our understanding of racial inequality in the United States today. I show that multiracial groups differ significantly from single-race groups on educational outcomes, and therefore need to be considered separately in studies of racial inequality. Using data on respondents' self-reported race, their parents' reported races, and an observer's assessment of their racial phenotype, I investigate whether their outcomes are evidence of a growing binary divide or a shift toward a multi-tiered system of racial inequality.
