Visualizando La Afrodignidad: Skin Color & Race in Puerto Rico

The image makes visible a study by Jose Caraballo-Gueto and Isar P. Godreau which makes a compelling argument that the ethno-racial categories provided by the U.S. census are not representative of how Puerto Ricans see themselves and are inadequate to assess the impact of racial inequalities. To determine who is more or less vulnerable to racial discrimination, they use a skin-color scale. When applied to a range of socio-economic characteristics the scale exposes the systemic colorism that has a disproportionate effect on those who are darker-skinned in Puerto Rico. This visualization compares U.S. Census categories against the color-scale. This comparison makes visible the disparities between skin color and race categories. It upends easy corroleries of skin color to race in the American racial imagination. We also see that over a third of the population identifies as “Other” suggesting that they do not see a race category in the U.S. Census that makes sense for them. Noteworthy, from the standpoint of skin color, is the “other” category contains the most diverse spectrum of gradient. 

The Caraballo-Gueto/Godreau study was conducted as a phone survey as part of the annual U.S. health survey in Puerto Rico. Participants were asked how they see their skin color on a scale of 1-6. Given the highly subjective nature of  identification on a color scale we chose to use a gradient to represent the skin color scale. The heavy blood red lines that divide the information highlight the fraught real world dynamics of racism and colorism that happen along these divides.