Masked Intersectional Inequalities Among Adolescents: Skin Tone Measurement, Skin Color Homophily in Adolescent Friendship Networks, and Skin Color Stratification in Educational Contexts
Abstract
The objective of this dissertation is to uncover how a failure to account for racial appearance, measured as skin color, in studies examining racial stratification within school contexts has the potential to mask inequality among students. The dissertation not only addresses how skin color stratification shapes unequal educational outcomes but also problematizes the issue of how best to capture skin tone data, a measure lacking standardization within the social sciences. Using network data from the Teen Identity Development and Education Study, coupled with data collected using an innovative skin color coding design, the findings of this dissertation underscore how the multidimensionality of race results in overlapping ethnoracial hierarchies that operate differently for certain ethnoracial groups.