RT Article
T1 Examining Race in Jamaica: How Racial Category and Skin Color Structure Social Inequality
JF Race and social problems
VO 12
IS 4
SP 300
OP 312
A1 Kelly, Monique D. A.
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1747157376
AB Jamaica’s social inequality is primarily held to be class-based due, in part, to the country’s perceived ethno-racial homogeneity and to the particularities of its colonial past. However, whether “race” also systemically shapes inequality in Jamaica remains understudied. To address this empirical lacuna, I examine the effects of two measures of race—categorical race and skin color—on years of schooling and household amenities using data from the 2014 AmericasBarometer social survey. I find that access to household amenities and years of schooling are starkly structured by racial category, and even more robustly by skin color, across all dimensions. The findings challenge long-held assumptions that marginalize race with regards to social inequality in Jamaica. They also suggest the importance of a multidimensional approach to studying the effects of race for understanding stratification dynamics in Jamaica. As an English-speaking, majority Afro-descent society in the Caribbean, the study’s findings add a unique country case for comparison to Latin America and may also speak to other similar contexts in the region.
K1 Jamaica
K1 Caribbean
K1 Social Inequality
K1 Skin color
K1 Race
DO 10.1007/s12552-020-09287-z