Bleach in the Rainbow: Latino Ethnicity and Preference for Whiteness

William Darity, Jr., Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jason Dietrich, U.S. Office of the Comptroller
Darrick Hamilton, University of Michigan

The conventional distinction between the cunderstanding of race in the USA and in Latin America treats race as genotypical in the former and phenotypical in the latter. The Latin color line is viewed as nebulous and benign, summarized by the "rainbow people" metaphor, in contrast with the USA "one drop rule",putatively rigid and malign. Census data for 1980 and 1990 and the Latino National Political Survey (1989-1990) problematicizes the "rainbow people" interpretation of the Latin conception of race. We demonstrate strong preference for whiteness among Latinos, regardless of skin shade. Additionally, evidence from the Multi City Study of Urban Inequality, the National Survey of Black Americans, and the General Social Survey indicates the importance of phenotype in the USA. Moreover, the dichotomous black-white distinction is historically contingent -- a development that did not crystallize until evaporation of social use of the "mulatto" category in the 1920s.