> Notably, the magnitude of the earnings disparities along the perceived attractiveness continuum, net of controls, rivals and/or exceeds in magnitude the black-white race gap and, among African-Americans, the black-white race gap and the gender gap in earnings
The "one drop of blood" school of thought.[1]
It doubles with each generation (this stops being true remarkably quickly but let's use single-static-assignment to ignore cousin marriage), so while someone with perfect information could say "so-and-so has precisely 14 ancestors from West Africa in a generation where the remaining 242 ancestors are all European", it's easier to say they're 5% African-descended.
Or Black, by the old American rules around race. I did say it's a thought-stopping category.
Secondly, all those characteristics are subjective, and are continuous measurements, not discrete properties. How do you define short or unattractive?