Redrawing the Color Line?

Abstract

In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois prophesied that the “problem of the twentieth–century is the problem of the color line,” by which he meant the tenacious black–white divide that has long characterized the nature of race relations in the United States ([1903] 1997: 45). Nearly a century later, Herbert J. Gans speculated the traditional black–white fault line may soon be replaced by a black–nonblack divide that may be qualitatively different from the black–white divide, but is hardly new for blacks, who are likely to remain at the bottom of America's racial hierarchy. Taking into account the new racial and ethnic diversity of the United States brought about by contemporary immigration, we examine patterns of intermarriage and multiracial identification to assess where color lines are fading most rapidly and where they continue to endure. We adjudicate whether a black–white divide remains the most salient, whether a Hispanic–Anglo divide is imminent, or whether a black–nonblack fault line is emerging, as Gans forecasts.