Skin Color as a Variable in Racial Attitudes of Black Urbanites

Of the several criteria by which Americans are stratified, none bears greater significance than skin color. The rigidity of norms separating blacks and whites still approaches that of a caste system. One obvious reason for the significance of skin color as a basis of social stratification is the ease with which it may be applied. Where color has been used extensively as a basis of discrimination, it becomes an appropriate surrogate for other, more functional criteria of stratification such as education, occupation, and income. A number of empirical sociological studies have demonstrated the fact that within both groups created by application of the color criterion is further social stratification. As is true for the white population, so within the black population there has developed a system of stratification based on such criteria as family, occupation, income, and education. Drake and Cayton (1962), among others, describe distinctly different life styles within these segments of the black population. Frazier (1932), Duncan and Duncan (1957), Schnore (1965), and Edwards (1970) are among those who have provided empirical evidence of residential