“The Caucasian Persuasion”: White Voter Evaluations of Black Political Candidates by Skin Tone and Gender

Abstract

This project investigates how skin tone and gender of Black political candidates work together to influence White Americans’ evaluations. Drawing on the colorism literature and group position theory, I develop a theoretical framework anticipating how the skin tone of Black candidates may influence White voters’ perceptions. Two survey experiments were conducted on nationally representative samples. Both studies highlight that skin tone is meaningful to White voters’ evaluations, but in nuanced ways based on gender. Specifically, the darker-skinned Black female candidate is evaluated more positively than her lighter-skinned female and darker-skinned male counterpart across multiple domains, including vote choice and expected job performance. These findings suggest that gender can attenuate the negative stereotypes typically associated with darker skin tone in some contexts. These findings underscore the importance of theorizing about race as a multidimensional construct, with implications for understanding hierarchy, intergroup relations, and electoral politics in a diversifying American racial landscape.