Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Politics of Skin Color

博士论文研究：肤色的政治

• 批准号: 1646988
• 负责人: Vincent Hutchings
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-04-15 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1646988&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Politics; Skin

General AbstractVariation in skin colors are linked to significant differences in life experiences, both within and across racial groups. For example, darker-skinned African Americans have worse health outcomes, lower incomes, lower levels of education, lower rates of marriage, and even receive harsher criminal sentencing than lighter-skinned African Americans. This project explores how skin color might influence political phenomena such public policy outcomes and candidate support. The work investigates this from the perspectives of both white and black people. This research has implications beyond just African Americans. Studying skin tone identity among Latinos and Asian Americans, for instance, would provide interesting comparison points. Furthermore, this research provides a foundation for understanding the significance of skin tone biases on a global bases, not just the United States. Investigating potential color-based discrimination will help inform strategies for addressing and mitigating such bias, to the benefit of political elites (such as political candidates from minority groups) as well as for the mass public who might face skin-color based discrimination in their everyday lives.Technical AbstractThe study of racial groups in political science tends to treat these as homogenous. An implication of this approach is that such studies tend to overlook potentially important heterogeneity within racial groups, especially with respect to skin color. The research utilizes a mixed-methods design, relying on multiple observational datasets, original qualitative interview data, and a series of experiments to explore the underlying significance of skin color in the political realm. The findings from these multiple datasets and my in-depth interviews indicate that skin color is a socially and politically significant source of identity for many African Americans. This is especially true for darker-skinned African Americans. Further, skin color play a significant role in shaping political preferences in multiple domains. In contrast to existing theories of white racial attitudes towards blacks, I expect racially insensitive attitudes will not be equally directed at all African Americans, but will vary by skin tone. Overall, my research demonstrates that in addition to race, skin color operates as an important, yet poorly understood, factor in American politics.

摘要肤色的变化与种族内部和种族间生活经历的显著差异有关。例如，与肤色较浅的非裔美国人相比，肤色较深的非裔美国人的健康状况更差，收入更低，受教育程度更低，结婚率更低，甚至受到更严厉的刑事判决。本项目探讨肤色如何影响诸如公共政策结果和候选人支持等政治现象。这项工作从白人和黑人的角度进行了调查。这项研究的影响不仅仅局限于非裔美国人。例如，研究拉丁裔和亚裔美国人的肤色特征，将提供有趣的比较点。此外，这项研究为理解肤色偏见在全球范围内的重要性提供了基础，而不仅仅是在美国。调查潜在的基于肤色的歧视将有助于制定解决和减轻这种偏见的策略，有利于政治精英（如少数群体的政治候选人）以及在日常生活中可能面临基于肤色歧视的大众。【技术摘要】政治学中对种族群体的研究倾向于将其视为同质的。这种方法的一个含义是，这类研究往往忽略了种族群体内部潜在的重要异质性，特别是在肤色方面。本研究采用混合方法设计，依靠多个观察数据集、原始定性访谈数据和一系列实验来探索肤色在政治领域的潜在意义。从这些多个数据集和我的深度访谈中得出的结果表明，肤色是许多非裔美国人在社会和政治上重要的身份来源。对于肤色较深的非裔美国人来说尤其如此。此外，肤色在多个领域的政治偏好形成中发挥着重要作用。与现有的白人对黑人的种族态度理论相反，我预计种族不敏感的态度不会平等地针对所有非裔美国人，而是会因肤色而异。总的来说，我的研究表明，除了种族之外，肤色在美国政治中也是一个重要的、但却鲜为人知的因素。