Why do Latinos with light skin complexions earn more than those with darker complexions? Why do African American women with darker complexions take longer to get married than their lighter counterparts? Why did Michael Jackson become lighter as he became wealthier and O.J. Simpson became darker when he was accused of murder? Why is Halle Berry considered a beautiful sex symbol, while Whoopi Goldberg is not? Skin Deep provides answers to these intriguing questions. It shows that although most white Americans maintain that they do not judge others on the basis of skin color, skin tone remains a determining factor in educational attainment, occupational status, income, and other quality of life indicators. Shattering the myth of the color-blind society, Skin Deep is a revealing examination of the ways skin tone inequality operates in America. The essays in this collection-by some of the nation's leading thinkers on race and colorism-examine these phenomena, asking whether skin tone differentiation is imposed upon communities of color from the outside or is an internally-driven process aided and abetted by community members themselves. The essays also question whether the stratification process is the same for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Skin Deep addresses such issues as the relationship between skin tone and self esteem, marital patterns, interracial relationships, socioeconomic attainment, and family racial identity and composition. The essays in this accessible book also grapple with emerging issues such as biracialism, color-blind racism, and 21st century notions of race in the U.S. and in other countries.

Shattering the myth of the color-blind society, the essays in "Skin Deep" examine skin tone stratification in America, which affects relations not only among different races and ethnic groups but also among members of individual ethnicities. Written by some of the nation's leading thinkers on race and colorism, these essays ask whether skin tone differentiation is imposed upon communities of color from the outside or is an internally-driven process aided and abetted by community members themselves. They also question whether the stratification process is the same for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. "Skin Deep" addresses such issues as the relationship between skin tone and self esteem, marital patterns, interracial relationships, socioeconomic attainment, and family racial identity and composition. The essays also grapple with emerging issues such as biracialism, color-blind racism, and 21st century notions of race.

Skin deep: race and complexion in the "color-blind" era / Cedric Herring — Light, bright, and almost white: the advantages and disadvantages of light skin / Margaret Hunter — Copper brown and blue black: colorism and self evaluation / Maxine S. Thompson and Verna M. Keith — For richer, for poorer, whether dark or light: skin tone, marital status, and spouse's earnings / Korie Edwards, Katrina Carter-Tellison, and Cedric Herring — "Mama, are you brown?": multiracial families and the color line / Heather M. Dalmadge — Beyond Black?: the reflexivity of appearances in racial identification among black/white biracials / Kerry Ann Rockquemore and David L. Brunsma — Skin tone, class, and racial attitudes among African Americans / Phillip J. Bowman, Ray Muhammad, and Mosi Ifatunji — Toward a critical demography of neo-Mulattoes: structural change and diversity within the black population / Hayward Derrick Horton and Lori Latrice Sykes — Demystifying color-blind ideology: denying race, ignoring racial inequalities / Kimberly L. Ebert — Race south of the equator: reexamining the intersection of color and class in Brazil / Vânia Penha-Lopes — From biracial to tri-racial: the emergence of a new racial stratification system in the United States / Eduardo Bonilla-Silva.