How Social Status Shapes Race |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume 105, Number 50 (2008-12-16)
pages 19628-19630
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0805762105
Andrew M. Penner, Associate Professor of Sociology
University of California, Irvine
Aliya Saperstein, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Stanford University
Edited by Michael Hout, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Berkeley
We show that racial perceptions are fluid; how individuals perceive their own race and how they are perceived by others depends in
part on their social position. Using longitudinal data from a representative sample of Americans, we find that individuals who are unemployed, incarcerated, or impoverished are more likely to be seen and identify as black and less likely to be seen and identify as white, regardless of how they were classified or identified previously. This is consistent with the view that race is not a fixed individual attribute, but rather a changeable marker of status.
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Tags: Aliya Saperstein, Andrew M. Penner, Andrew Penner, Michael Hout, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences