Abstract A large body of research documents racial disparities in wealth, particularly in the United States, most often conceptualized through a Black-White or White-non-White binary. Yet less is known about how race shapes wealth inequality outside the United States. Drawing on the theory of embodied capital and a multidimensional approach to race, this study examines the direct and indirect associations of self-identified race and skin color on wealth, including pathways via education and household income. We center Jamaica as a critical case—a majority-Black country shaped by European colonialism that has adopted forms of racial democracy—where racialized embodied traits function as salient markers of social advantage. Using nationally representative data from the AmericasBarometer surveys (2012–2018/19) and path-model estimation, we measure wealth as household assets. Findings indicate that darker skin color is directly associated with lower levels of household assets. Skin color is also indirectly associated with assets through education and income, and via a sequential education-to-household income pathway. In contrast, the association between self-identified race and assets is largely attenuated once skin color is included. Findings highlight the critical role of colorism in shaping household assets and show that education and income only partially account for racialized disparities in Jamaica.
Abstract Prior work has shown that when macro-level events threaten a group’s status, discriminatory behavior increases, but we know less about when such threats elicit ingroup favoritism versus outgroup prejudice. We argue that the nature of discrimination depends, in part, on whether people are responding to a threat during a period of higher or lower levels of societal strain. We test this with identical experiments run at two time points: one during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (a period of high ambient threat) and one post-pandemic (lower ambient threat). We primed participants with threatening information and then measured White and Asian Americans’ prosocial behavior toward ingroup versus outgroup targets. We find that the same threat prime elicits White Americans’ outgroup prejudice under high ambient threat, but their behavior shifted toward ingroup favoritism under low threat context. Asian Americans, on the other hand, responded to threat primes with increased generosity toward outgroups, even when the imminent threat of COVID-19 had faded. These results show that discrimination is context-contingent, clarifying when threat cues escalate hostility beyond mere ingroup preference.
Abstract An extensive literature finds that forced moves erode well-being and widen family inequality. Fewer studies examine how worries over potential future displacement may also stratify families. Using survey data from a probability sample of Los Angeles County residents, we examine socially-patterned disparities in the prevalence and duration of anticipatory stress around housing loss, the association between such stress and health behaviors, and the role of doubling up in buffering anticipatory housing loss stress. We find that immigrants, renters, and lower-income households report significantly more anticipatory housing loss stress, even after controlling for multiple individual event stressors associated with displacement risk. We also find evidence that anticipatory housing loss stress is associated with present-day food cutbacks and that doubling up with relatives may shield against such stress. These findings advance past work on the housing crisis by demonstrating that its total impact extends beyond the downstream consequences of involuntary moves. Our results also contribute to research on socio-demographic disparities in anticipatory stress, the relationship between anticipatory stress and health behavior, and how doubling up shapes family well-being.
Abstract Students of crime in the United States examine drug economies in poor communities, poor residents’ adaptive behaviors, and punitive crime policies. Research on Latin America, the most violent region in the world, focuses on criminal governance, violence in poor communities, and the popularity of punitive policies. However, few scholars have examined middle class residents’ experiences of crime. This article builds on work on middle classes and utilizes interviews and observations in three Santiago, Chile, communities. Findings focus on middle-class Chileans’ interpretations of crime, adaptive behaviors, and analyses of crime policies. In unsettled times, individuals construct symbolic boundaries with criminals and their peers. Direct experiences with crime as well as cultural and ideological beliefs shape middle class individuals’ contrasting interpretations of crime and construction of boundaries with others. These divergent attitudes reflect enduring fissures within Chilean society over its dictatorship (1973–1990) and recent social upheaval (protests, immigration, and rising crime), complicating universalizing narratives about a punitive Chilean citizenry.
