The Shades of Black Folk

Name: The Shades of Black Folk
Price: 32.95 AUD
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ISBN: 9781509565832

Colorism Past, Present, and Future

Robert L. Reece (University of Texas at Austin, USA)

$32.95

Paperback

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English

Polity Press
01 March 2026

Sociology & anthropology

Colorism – discrimination based on skin darkness within a racial group – has plagued Black Americans since their first arrival in this country. Although colorism has taken different forms over time, lighter-skinned Black people have always received advantages at the expense of their darker-skinned counterparts, and colorism is a problem that fosters ongoing social inequality to this day.

The Shades of Black Folk traces the development and evolution of colorism in the US from its origins in the late eighteenth century right up to the present. It chronicles the phenomenon’s various manifestations, from nineteenth-century debates about the fate of children born to parents of different races, through the contentious arguments between famed Black activists Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois, to the modern legal battles where judges struggle to adjudicate color discrimination cases. Recognizing that this issue is made more complicated by rarely being discussed in conversations about race and racial discrimination, Reece calls on readers to grapple with the complexities of color-based inequality and offers policy suggestions to tackle it.

The Shades of Black Folk sheds light on an underexamined but all-too-powerful axis of social inequality and will be necessary reading for students of race, racism, and stratification.

By: Robert L. Reece (University of Texas at Austin USA)
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 213mm, Width: 137mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 227g
ISBN: 9781509565832
ISBN 10: 1509565833
Pages: 168
Publication Date: 01 March 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

PART 1 1. Introduction 2. Colorism in the US PART 2 3. Genesis 4. Reconstruction 5. Plessy and the One-Drop Rule 6. Making Modern Colorism PART 3 7. Modern Legal Challenges 8. Color, Race, and What’s Next References

Robert Reece is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.