Du Bois Review

New research suggests that in Latin America, skin tone may be a more powerful driver of inequality than self-identified racial categories — and that wealth-based stratification is far more common than occupational stratification across the region. In the Spring 2026 issue (23.1), Ryan A. Smith and Rubia R. Valente analyze data from sixteen Latin American countries to assess the prevalence of "colortocracies" and the relative weight of skin tone versus ethnoracial identity in producing socioeconomic inequality. Also in the issue, Erin Gaede and Pamela Oliver compare Black newspaper and New York Times coverage of anti-police-violence protests in 1990s New York; Tunde Alabi draws on Du Bois's concept of double consciousness to examine how Nigerian migrants navigate self-identification and immigrant integration; and Fithawee Tzeggai recovers a suppressed grassroots critique of urban school segregation from 1960s Chicago to challenge prevailing liberal framings of educational inequality. Other themes include Black Boston's long history of resistance to police civil rights violations; racial whitening as a global political strategy in the First Brazilian Republic; race and caste in the American Bahá'í magazine World Order (1935–1949); comparative readings of Reconstruction in the thought of Du Bois, Harry Haywood, and James S. Allen; and the ethics of elite educational advantage conferral for Black families.

In the Fall 2025 issue (22.2), Richard Alba and colleagues examine how Hawai'i represents an exceptional case where White supremacy has given way to a multiracial mainstream; Victor Figuereo and colleagues analyze factors influencing racial self-classification among U.S. Latinx adults; and Leah Christiani and Jeremiah W. Muhammad investigate how positive, explicit racial appeals to Black voters affect support for White political candidates. Also in the issue, the research of Demar F. Lewis IV revisits Tuskegee Institute's abolitionist-inspired institutional interventions and anti-lynching advocacy; Gregory Price estimates the causal effects of HBCU status on college endowments; and Daniel K. Pryce examines attitudes toward immigrants and immigration in Virginia's Hampton Roads region. Other themes in the issue include the political labor and citizenship claims of justice-involved Black women; Africa in Du Bois's internationalist thinking; and Black philanthropic histories and traditions.