Color Costs: Intersections of Gendered Skin Tone Discrimination, Racial Contexts, and Well-Being among Black Americans.

Skin tone differences among African Americans have been associated with experiences with upward mobility and discrimination. Gender also matters because men and women are not socialized identically, thus, they react to skin tone biases differently. This three-paper dissertation examined dark-, medium-, and light-skinned African American men and women separately in their appraisals of how Blacks and Whites treat them because of their skin tone, its consequences to their self-esteem, and women’s health. The three papers compared results from the Detroit Area Study to the nationally representative National Survey of American Life. In Chapter 2, men’s experiences were examined. In their reports of discrimination from Whites, dark-skinned men reported the most discrimination and light-skinned men reported the least. In men’s reports of discrimination from Blacks, both dark- and light-skinned men reported substantial discrimination while medium-skinned men reported the least. Additionally, interviewer-rated skin tones were not associated with men’s self-esteem, yet discrepancies between self-rated versus interviewer-rated skin tone were associated with lower self-esteem. This challenged previous assumptions that self-esteem was not linked to men’s complexions. Chapter 3 examined women’s experiences. Women’s reports of skin tone discrimination from Whites were higher as skin tone darkened (Chapter 2). Interviewers’ ratings of skin tone were associated with low self-esteem among dark-skinned women. However, discrepancies in self- versus interviewer-rated skin tones were not associated with women’s self-esteem. These gender differences were interpreted in light of theories of femininity that suggest that women were vulnerable to self-esteem threats when their communities devalue their appearance. Chapter 4 examined women’s health in light of double burdens of sexism and racism. Using subjectively measured (self-rated) health, there were no differences across skin tones. However, objective measurements of health revealed that dark-skinned women had the poorest health, followed by medium- and light-skinned women; this association was mediated by their beauty. Further, dark-skinned women were also the most obese. Implications for policy interventions were addressed as findings illustrated that lived experiences of oppression differ across skin tones and gender.PhDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108952/1/ekeoma_1.pd

Is ignorance bliss? Depression, antidepressants and the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes.

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107397/1/Mezuk Ignorance Bliss.pd