FRIENDSHIP IS SKIN (COLOR) DEEP

Emilce Santana

doi:10.1017/s1742058x21000291

Abstract

AbstractFriendships between members of different ethnoracial groups can help to reduce prejudice and ease tensions across ethnoracial groups. A large body of literature has explored possible determinants for the formation of these friendships. One unexplored factor is the role of an individual’s skin color in influencing their opportunities to befriend members of other ethnoracial groups. This study seeks to answer two questions: For ethnoracial minorities, how is an individual’s skin color associated with the likelihood that they will engage in a cross-ethnoracial friendship? Does the role of skin color depend on the ethnoracial combination of the two groups that befriend one another? Using waves 1, 2, and 3 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen and a series of multinomial logit models, the results suggest that the role of skin color is a function of the relative levels of social status of the two ethnoracial groups that befriend one another. I argue that lighter-skinned members of lower status ethnoracial groups have a greater likelihood of having close friendships with members of higher status ethnoracial groups. There is also limited evidence that darker-skinned members of a higher status group, specifically Asians, have a greater likelihood of having close friends from a lower status group.

Highlights

The Pew Research Center (2015) predicts that by 2055, less than half of the U.S population will be White due to the growing population shares of Asians and Latinos.1 In spite of this increasing ethnoracial diversity, a report by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that, on average, most friendships are ethnoracially homogeneous (Cox et al, 2016)
The full models show that among Black respondents, the group theorized to have the lowest status, lighter skin color is correlated to friendships across multiple ethnoracial groups
Among Latino respondents, lighter skin color is associated with greater odds of having a White close friend, the most socially dominant group in the United States

Summary

Introduction

The Pew Research Center (2015) predicts that by 2055, less than half of the U.S population will be White due to the growing population shares of Asians and Latinos.. The Pew Research Center (2015) predicts that by 2055, less than half of the U.S population will be White due to the growing population shares of Asians and Latinos.1 In spite of this increasing ethnoracial diversity, a report by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that, on average, most friendships are ethnoracially homogeneous (Cox et al, 2016). According to Grace Kao and colleagues (2019), for both Asian men and women, the percentage of those who report an intergroup romantic relationship in young adulthood is approximately twice as high among those who had at least one intergroup friendship during adolescence in comparison to those who did not have any cross-ethnoracial friendships. In light of the growing ethnoracial diversity in the United States, identifying determinants of interethnic and interracial relationships, including informal nonmarital relationships, may help uncover mechanisms that can reduce the nation’s ethnoracial divides

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Results

Conclusion