Contrary to popular discourse on racial harmony in Latin America, research links educational inequality to physical appearance, particularly in countries with national ideologies emphasizing multiculturalism, such as Brazil and Colombia (Marteleto et al., Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2012, 30, 352; Telles, Pigmentocracies: Ethnicity, Race, and Color in Latin America, 2014, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC). This study used PVEST to explore how social processes influence adolescent self-identities and perceptions of educational access. Mixed methods research conducted among 737 high school seniors in Salvador, Brazil and Cartagena, Colombia, revealed that socioeconomic status significantly related to race and skin tone, and Black and darker skinned Brazilian participants reported the highest rates of perceived discrimination; however, perceptions of socioeconomic mobility varied by the type of school students attended (i.e., public vs. private) rather than by their race or skin tone.
Keywords: Latin American youth; colorism; educational inequality.
© 2021 Society for Research on Adolescence.