I presume we are all aware of discrimination on the basis of skin color, part of the larger system of racism. However, one corollary to that process that doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention is discrimination based on skin tone -- that is, the extent to which darker skin-toned members of a particular racial group (e.g., Blacks) experience more discrimination than their lighter skin-tone counterparts:

The study, “Colorism in the Job Selection Process: Are There Preferential Differences Within the Black Race?” was presented by Matthew Harrison, a doctoral student at UGA, at the 66th annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Atlanta last month. Harrison, who is Black, told Diverse the findings are not very surprising.

“We found that a light-skinned Black male can have only a bachelor’s degree and typical work experience and still be preferred over a dark-skinned Black male with an MBA and past managerial positions, simply because expectations of the light-skinned Black male are much higher, and he doesn’t appear as ‘menacing’ as the darker-skinned male applicant,” he says.

However, he was still surprised that skin color played a more salient role than education. In America especially, Harrison says, when people think of race or race relations they commonly think in terms of Black and White. In fact, he says, skin tone differences are responsible for increasingly different perceptions within standard racially defined groups, like Blacks.

Unfortunately Harrison’s study only highlights just how much racism and racial discrimination is alive and well in American society, to the extent that not only do we as a society discriminate based on skin color, but also according to details such as a particular minority member’s skin tone as well. This realization also stands in stark to views that many Americans have that racism is a thing of the past and that Blacks no longer face any discrimination or prejudice.

As the article also notes, what can potentially complicate the situation even more is the increasing number of biracial and multiracial Americans. In other words, the question becomes, as American society continues to become increasingly multicultural and racially diverse and as the number of multiracial individuals continues to grow, are we likely to see a reduction in racial discrimination since the “color line” is likely to blur, or will discrimination become even more insidious as we develop a new racial hierarchy based on skin tone?