A racial binary can be vertically ordered across multiple axes of subordination

Evidence

A binary does not have to exist on the same plane but may be vertically differentiated. In her critique, Mutua articulates a fixed position of white always on top, Black always on the bottom, and the rest somewhere in the middle, which because while they have critiqued race and gender essentialism, many have failed to include sexual orientation in the analysis. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 66 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

The society arranged by these generations of the colored and Black middle classes of Trinidad was a chiaroscuro of the white upper classes. Its priorities had little to do with the elements of the radical tradition sounded in Thomas’s Froudacity. In their society, the shadings of privilege and status, acceptability and tolerance, the play etiquette of Brown upon Black were as subtle a social art as could be devised with the cultural, historical, political, educational, familial, and financial materials in their hands. One almost had to be a Trinidadian, one with a special intuition at that, to know what was required and expected, what indeed were the possibilities for any of their young launching into the orbit of adult intercourse. While the white elite seemed to possess the convenience of bold denominational distinctions, the more easily measured amassed acreage or fortune, and the property of names that could be located in the historical traditions frankly elaborated in Trinidadian literature and journalism, the standard deviations among the colored and Black middle classes were many times of such tiny gradation that an instinctive social subtlety was a sine qua non. Gross disparities, to be sure existed, but they occurred too infrequently for custom or habit to be unerring guides. In any case, the highly esteemed place of the light-complexioned elite was easily enough achieved over a generation or two. Though its value was not appreciably lessened by “mixed” marriages, simple color was considered a crude and rude measure at best. Any Black aspirant sufficiently talented, ambitious, or sponsored by professional training or family affluence could ensure his/her grandchildren would be phenotypically eligible for the pinnacle of intra-class recognition. There was though the ceiling beyond which the Black could not rise. Anticipating that closure, many of the Blacks, particularly the intelligentsia, sought to substitute education and literature as currency in the inter-class exchange. Where Thomas had succeeded, others naturally strove, hoping to draw the legitimizing attentions of white and colored alike and thereby rolling aside the stone of caste for themselves and hopefully for their children. The highest coin, as was the case among the Victorian English intelligentsia itself, was literature. It was the mark of the educated Black: Probably because education was so important in their rise in status, the members of this group attached great weight to cultural and intellectual life. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1166 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

It is worth contrasting figure 5.2 with what the previous chapter did with the ordinal World Bank groupings of poverty–wealth. The core difference is that the ordinal categorization of the World Bank has an underlying ratio variable of GDP per capita. Because of this underlying data, we can see that the distance covered by groups is definitely not equal. For the PTS we do not have such underlying ratio data. As a result we have to use other means to try to do the mapping. However, the basic semantics, logic, and methodology are not really that different. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 797 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A racial hierarchy can be vertically ordered without collapsing into a flat white-versus-Black binary — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 66; Multiple subordinated identities compound into more than additive subordination. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 72; Two-by-two typologies with tied middle cells form partially ordered scales. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1284 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• A racial hierarchy can be vertically ordered without collapsing into a flat white-versus-Black binary #contradicts (0.86) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 66
• Trinidad’s color hierarchy measured privilege in gradations finer than race #exemplifies (0.82) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1166
• Ordinal categories built on an underlying ratio variable reveal unequal spacing between groups #expands (0.78) — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 797
• Two-by-two typologies with tied middle cells form partially ordered scales. #expands (0.75) — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 1284
• Multiple subordinated identities compound into more than additive subordination. #expands (0.74) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 72
• Unitary categories like race and class fray at the edges under sustained analysis #complicates (0.72) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 354