Interracial Intimacies: An Examination of Powerful Men and Their Relationships across the Color Line

Posted in Books, History, Law, Media Archive, Monographs, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States on 2015-03-07 02:02Z by Steven

Interracial Intimacies: An Examination of Powerful Men and Their Relationships across the Color Line

Carolina Academic Press
2009
144 pages
Paper ISBN: 978-1-59460-496-6

Earl Smith, Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Angela J. Hattery, Professor and Director of Women and Gender Studies
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

Unique among books on interracial relationships, this book examines the lives of high profile men who have produced public discourses on race and interracial relationships and who themselves, often contradictory to their rhetoric, were or continue to be involved in love relationships across the color line. The book opens with a discussion of the history of interracial couplings in the United States, including an examination of the relationship of Richard and Mildren Loving which led to the landmark case Loving v. Virginia in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1967, rendered unconstitutional all state laws that prohibited interracial marriage. Each of the subsequent chapters is devoted to an individual man or couple; we explore the lives of men about whom their interracial relationships are relatively well known, including Thomas Jefferson, Strom Thurmond, Clarence Thomas, Frederick Douglass, and William Cohen. We also explore a few figures about whom less is known about their intimate lives including George Washington and Richard Mentor Johnson.

Rather than simply focusing on the relationships exclusively, this book examines specifically the role that power plays in shaping the negotiation of intimate relationships, family forms, racial identity, hegemonic ideology and public policy among public figures who not only contributed to the public discourses on race and interracial unions, but also contributed to the racial ideologies that gained hegemony and dominated Americans’ beliefs about race and the laws and public policies that established second class citizenship for those identified as “Black.”

This book offers the interested reader a glimpse into the personal lives of famous and not so famous American men who clandestinely or in open view loved women across the color line. In some cases, these loving relationships mirrored the men’s beliefs about race and interracial unions—Richard Mentor Johnson, William Cohen—and in others these relationships were in seeming contradiction to the beliefs these men held and in fact developed about racial purity and segregation—Thomas Jefferson, Clarence Thomas, Strom Thurmond. These contradictions between the public and private lives of our country’s public servants offers a rich arena for exploration of race in the United States. In light of the recent election of the first African American president, Barack Obama, this book could not be more timely.

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Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century

Posted in Anthologies, Barack Obama, Books, Family/Parenting, Gay & Lesbian, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2009-11-28 21:37Z by Steven

Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century

Carolina Academic Press
2009
160 pp
Paper ISBN: 978-1-59460-571-0
LCCN: 2009001612

Earl Smith, Professor of Sociology and Rubin Professor and Director of Ethnic Studies
Wake Forest University

Angela J. Hattery, Professor of Sociology
Wake Forest University

Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century is a unique set of essays—both personal and research based—that explore a variety of issues related to interracial couplings in the 21st Century United States. Edited by Earl Smith and Angela Hattery, professors of sociology at Wake Forest University, this volume brings together the leading scholars in both the social sciences and the humanities who explore interracialities.

The chapters cover a wide range of topics related to navigating interracial relationships, including a chapter by George Yancey and colleagues that focuses on the tensions around interracial relationships in conservative Christian churches, to the role that racism and patriarchy play in shaping intimate partner violence among interracial couples—Smith and Hattery’s own contribution. Kerry Ann Rockquemore and Tracey A. Laszloffy focus on the children of interracial unions and their attempts to negotiate a racial identity. Wei Ming Dariotis uses a personal narrative to explore the discourse and cooption of the term “Hapa” by a variety of Asian Americans. And, Amy Steinbugler offers an examination of the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in her chapter on interracial, same sex couples. Other contributors include Kellina M. Craig-Henderson, Emily J. Hubbard and Amy Smith.

In light of the recent election of the first African American president, Barack Obama, himself a bi-racial individual living in a multi-racial family, this book could not be more timely.

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgments
  • Chapter 1 • Introduction, Earl Smith & Angela Hattery
    • Interracial Marriage among Whites and African Americans
    • References

    Chapter 2 • African American Attitudes towards Interracial Intimacy: A Review of Existing Research and Findings, Kellina M. Craig-Henderson

    • Introduction
    • African American Attitudes towards Interracial Intimacy
    • Focusing on African American Attitudes
    • Research on African Americans’ Attitudes toward Interracial Intimacy
    • Variation within Race
    • Illustration: The HBCU Study
    • Concluding Comments
    • References

    Chapter 3 • Hapa: An Episodic Memoir, Wei Ming Dariotis

    • Introduction
    • Hapa: Community and Family
    • War Baby | Love Child (Ang 2001)
    • War Babies: White Side/Chinese Side
    • Hapa: Language, Identity and Power
    • Conclusion
    • References

    Chapter 4 • What about the Children? Exploring Misconceptions and Realities about Mixed-Race Children, Tracey A. Laszloffy & Kerry Ann Rockquemore

    • Misconception #1: Doomed to Identity Confusion
    • Reality: Racial Identity Varies and Can Change over Time
    • Misconception #2: Doomed by Double Rejection
    • Reality: Acceptance and Comfort Require Contact
    • Racial Socialization in Interracial Families
    • Individual Parental Factors
    • The Quality of the Parents’ Relationship
    • Parents’ Response to Physical Appearance
    • Raising Biracial Children
    • References

    Chapter 5 • Race and Intimate Partner Violence: Violence in Interracial and Intraracial Relationships, Angela Hattery & Earl Smith

    • Introduction
    • Interracial Relationships
    • Black-White Intermarriage
    • Theoretical Framework: Race, Class and Gender
    • Experiences with IPV in Interracial Relationships:
      • The Story
      • Race Differences in Victimization
      • Race Differences in Perpetration
      • Racial Composition of the Couple
      • African American Men and White Women
      • White Men and African American Women
      • Race, Class and Gender: Analyzing the Data
      • Conclusion
    • Bibliography

    Chapter 6 • Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Queer Interraciality Is Unrecognizable to Strangers and Sociologists, Amy C. Steinbugler

    • Sexuality, Interracial Intimacy, and Social Recognition
    • Research Methodology
    • Seeing Straight: Heterosexual Interracial Intimacy in Public Spaces
    • Exclusion and Affirmation
    • Heterosexuality as Visual Default
    • Queer Interraciality: Intimacy Unseen
    • The Privileges and Vulnerability of Social Recognition
    • Visibility and the Performance of Gender
    • A Broader Lack of Recognition
    • Analyzing Heterosexuality: Privileges and Problems
    • Gay and Lesbian Interracial Families: Hiding in Plain Sight?
    • Conclusion
    • Bibliography

    Chapter 7 • Unequally Yoked: How Willing Are Christians to Engage in Interracial and Interfaith Dating?, George Yancey, Emily J. Hubbard & Amy Smith

    • Introduction
    • Instructions on Interfaith Dating
    • Instructions on Interracial Dating
    • Christianity and Racism
    • Why Christians May Not Interracially Date
    • Procedures
    • Data and Methods
    • Variables
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Conclusion
    • References

    Chapter 8 • Conclusion: Where Do Interracial Relationships Go from Here?, Angela Hattery & Earl Smith

    • References
    • Index
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