Several months ago, I posted about research that documents how there is still racial discrimination not just against skin color, but also against skin tone (in that case, how darker-skinned Blacks experience more racism than lighter-skinned Blacks). Now new data shows that this same phenomenon also exists among immigrants in the U.S.:

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. . . .

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. . . . Other researchers said the findings are consistent with other studies on color and point to a skin-tone prejudice that goes beyond race. . . . 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.

Although this conclusion shouldn’t be terribly surprising to most people familiar with how racism in the U.S. works, it is another sad reminder of just how pervasive racial discrimination is in this country. That is, if it’s not discrimination based on skin color, then it’s skin tone; if not nationality, then immigrant status, etc. Sadly, the phenomenon of racism seems to grow more tentacles all the time.