"The Color of Punishment: African Americans, Skin Tone, and the Criminal Justice System" 2018.
Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Public debate and scholarly research has largely concentrated on the vast array of disparities between blacks and whites in their treatment by and experiences with the criminal justice system. Nevertheless, a growing body of research shows that African Americans’ life chances are internally stratified by gradational differences in their skin tone. This study brings together research on race, color, and the criminal justice system by using nationally-representative data to examine whether (and to what extent) skin tone is associated with policing and punishment among African Americans. I find that skin tone is significantly associated with the probability of having been arrested and/or incarcerated, net of relevant controls. Further analyses, using a sub-sample of whites drawn from the same nationally-representative survey, show that disparities in policing and punishment within the black population along the colour continuum are often comparable to or even exceed disparities between blacks and whites as a whole.

"The Consequences of 'Race and Color' in Brazil" 2016. Social Problems.

The vast majority of quantitative research on ethnoracial inequality uses census categories. In this article, however, I question whether census categories [in Brazil] are the most adequate measure for estimating ethnoracial inequality. Using the first nationally representative survey to include interviewer-rated skin color data in Brazil (LAPOP 2010), I examine: (1) the association between skin color and stratification outcomes, (2) how using multiple measures of race may reveal different information about inequality across different outcomes, and (3) whether census race categories and skin color should be considered equivalent or analytically distinct concepts. I find that skin color is a stronger predictor of educational attainment and occupational status among Brazilians than race (operationalized as census, race-color categories used in virtually all research on ethnoracial inequality in Brazil). Centrally, this study finds that race and color are analytically distinct concepts given that they are empirically distinct, even though they are often conflated in everyday life and by social scientists. The implications of these findings for the study of ethnoracial inequality in Brazil and beyond are discussed, with a focus on directions for future research.

"The Cost of Color: Skin Color, Discrimination, and Health among African-Americans" 2015.
American Journal of Sociology.

​In this study, the author uses a nationally representative survey to examine the relationship(s) between skin tone, discrimination, and health among African-Americans. He finds that skin tone is a significant predictor of multiple forms of perceived discrimination (including perceived skin color discrimination from whites and blacks) and, in turn, these forms of perceived discrimination are significant predictors of key health outcomes, such as depression and self-rated mental and physical health. Intraracial health differences related to skin tone (and discrimination) often rival or even exceed disparities between blacks and whites as a whole. The author also finds that self-reported skin tone, conceptualized as a form of embodied social status, is a stronger predictor of perceived discrimination than interviewer-rated skin tone. He discusses the implications of these findings for the study of ethnoracial health disparities and highlights the utility of cognitive and multidimensional approaches to ethnoracial and social inequality.

*Winner, 2018 Oliver Cromwell Cox Article Award, ASA Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities
*Winner, 2016 Outstanding Recent Contribution in Social Psychology Award, ASA Section on Social Psychology

"Skin Tone Stratification among Black Americans, 2001-2003" 2014. Social Forces.

In the past few decades a dedicated collection of scholars have examined the matter of skin tone stratification within the black American population and found that complexion has significant net effects on a variety of stratification outcomes.  These analyses relied heavily on data collected between 1950 and 1980.  In particular, many scholars have utilized the National Survey of Black Americans (1979-1980).  This leaves the question of whether or not the effect of skin tone on stratification outcomes has changed in the past thirty years.  I utilize newly available nationally-representative survey data to examine this question; specifically, I analyze the effect of gradations of skin tone on black Americans’ educational attainment, occupational status, employment status, marital status, personal income, household income, and feelings of closeness to other blacks -- net of a variety of traditional stratification measures.  The findings suggest that skin tone does have significant net effects on a variety of stratification outcomes.  Some of these findings, however, paint a different and slightly more complicated picture of skin tone stratification among black Americans than earlier studies based on data collected between 1950 and 1980.  These differences, complexities, and their implications – as well as directions for future research – are discussed.