Interracial Families in Post-Civil

Rights America
Kerry Ann Rockquemore and Loren
Henderson
 Interracial Families
Loving v. Virginia, (1967), was a
landmark civil rights case in
In 1967 the
which the United States
Supreme court
Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote,
in Loving v. declared Virginia's anti-
Virginia miscegenation statute, the
declared that "Racial Integrity Act of 1924",
laws against unconstitutional, thereby
interracial overturning Pace v. Alabama
marriage were (1883) and ending all race-based
illegal. legal restrictions on marriage in
the United States.
 Post-racial America?
In 1970 only 1% of marriages
were interracial. In 2005 the
number was still less than 10
percent at 7.5%.
In the 7.5% of marriages that
are interracial, marriages
between blacks and whites
remain the least likely
combination.
Is love, marriage, and child-
rearing in post-Civil Rights
America color blind?
92% of all marriages in the US
adhere to the practice of
endogamy or in-group marriage,
that is they are between people
of the same race.
History of interracial marriage
A 1691 law increased the
punishment of European
women who married African
or Indian men; a white
woman could be whipped or
enslaved for marrying a Black.
Eventually, enslavement of
white women was ended as
slavery began to apply only to
blacks.
 Structural Racism
• Structurally rooted
racial inequalities
continue to persist in
our social institutions,
ranging from public
schools, to health care,
to the criminal justice
system.
 Interracial Families Today
• http://www.nytimes.co • In Strangers’ Glances at
m/2011/10/13/us/for- Family, Tensions Linger
mixed-family-old-racial-
tensions-remain-part- • NYT, Oct. 12, 2011
of-life.html?smid=pl-
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Covert and Overt discrimination today
• Blacks in general
oppose interracial
marriage, but accept it
within their families

• Whites accept
interracial marriage in
general, but oppose it
within their families
 Border Patrolling
• Is a form of racial White women marrying black men
report being verbally harassed, socially
hostility. ostracized, and/or excommunicated
from family and friendship networks.
• The unarticulated
White males who marry black women
boundaries experience less hostility, mostly
between blacks and expressions of curiosity, confusion, or
whites that become concern.
noticeable to an
interracial couple. Blacks report attacks against their racial
identity, loyalty to the group (race), and
self-worth.
 Angry Black Women

• Why are black women

so opposed to
interracial marriage?
– The marriage squeeze
– Eurocentric standards of
beauty
– Structural racism
 What is Racial Literacy?
• The ability to recognize white privilege
understand that (the symbolic and material
value of Whiteness)
larger socio-
political and
historical forces understand that racial
shape racism. identities are learned and
an outcome of social
practices
• Racial literacy is
a set of encourage the ability to
practices that: translate (interpret) racial
codes and racialized
practices
define racism as a current
social problem rather than
a historical legacy
promote the possession of
racial grammar and a
vocabulary that facilitates a
discussion of race, racism,
and antiracism
includes an analysis of the
ways that racism is
mediated by class
inequalities, gender
hierarchies, and
heteronormativity.
 What about the children?
• Today’s mixed race youth
do not have angst about
their identity.
• They develop identities
based on their social
environs and how they
are linked to social,
material, cultural,
economic and
institutional forces.