Race and Inequality: Disentangling the Effects of Racial Self-Identification and Classification by Others

Andrew Penner, University of California, Irvine
Aliya Saperstein, Stanford University
Jessica Kizer, University of California, Irvine

A large literature has examined racial differences across a variety of domains. We add to this research by examining whether racial classification by others and racial self-identification are differently related to inequality across a number of outcomes. While previous research on racial inequality typically views these two dimensions of race as inextricably linked, we highlight four analytic approaches to disentangling the effects of self-reported and interviewer classified race. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that these two dimensions of race can independently influence outcomes of interest, and that they can do so in different ways. Further, our analyses suggest that the best-fitting models often include measures of race from both self-identification and others’ classification, stressing the importance of moving beyond a unidimensional conception of race.