- Santa Barbara, California, United States
Reginald Daniel
University of California, Santa Barbara, Sociology, Faculty Member
- Sociology, Anthropology, Race and Ethnicity, Cultural Studies, Cultural History, Cultural Heritage, and 15 moreSelf and Identity, Cultural Sociology, Race and Racism, American History, Social Identity, Ethnic Studies, Interdisciplinarity, History of Slavery, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Slavery, U.S. history, Black/African Diaspora, Critical Mixed Race Studies, Caribbean Slavery, and Mixed Race Identityedit
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
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Sociologists largely failed to comprehend the emergence of multiracial identities in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was due, in part, to hypodescent and the monoracial imperative. These social devices,... more
Sociologists largely failed to comprehend the emergence of multiracial identities in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was due, in part, to hypodescent and the monoracial imperative. These social devices, respectively, categorize offspring of interracial unions between Whites and people of color based exclusively on the background of color, and necessitate single-racial identification. This has prohibited the articulation and recognition of multiracial identities. Hypodescent and the monoracial imperative are so normative that they have been taken for granted by sociologists across the monoracial spectrum, much as the larger society. Sociology’s espoused objectivity blinded sociologists to the standpoint of their own monoracial subjectivity. They provided little critical examination of hypodescent and the monoracial imperative in terms of their impact on multiracial identity formations. Some sociologists challenged theories of marginality, which stressed ...
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The year 2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia,2 which declared anti-miscegenation laws to be unconstitutional. For many, the Loving decision represents a symbolic... more
The year 2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia,2 which declared anti-miscegenation laws to be unconstitutional. For many, the Loving decision represents a symbolic turning point in the history of United States racial politics. Some even celebrate the Loving decision and the argued subsequent “biracial baby boom” as the beginning of a postracial United States. Indeed, statistics indicating that fifteen percent of all new marriages are interracial and polls suggesting that a majority of Americans today approve of interracial marriage are cited as evidence of the erosion of racial boundaries and tensions. For many, the 2008 election of Barack Hussein Obama, the offspring of an Afri-
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Because modernity rationalizes the self, emotions have been undeveloped at best and at worst marginalized in mainstream social theory. Moreover, emotions as causes of war in modern societies has not been well received, particularly among... more
Because modernity rationalizes the self, emotions have been undeveloped at best and at worst marginalized in mainstream social theory. Moreover, emotions as causes of war in modern societies has not been well received, particularly among historians and
political scientists, who approach war primarily from materialist or interpretivist perspectives. This essay outlines a theory of the social-emotional world that draws on developments found in W.E.B. Du Bois’ “double consciousness” and C.H. Cooley’s “looking-glass self”, both of which help elucidate the sociological importance of emotions. This analysis also engages the pivotal role that Thomas
Scheff argues shame plays in generating war and violence, found in Bloody Revenge: Emotions, Nationalism, and War (1994). Specifically, we provide further analyses of the relationship between shame, anti-Semitism, and Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. We
examine how Hitler and the Nazi regime attached blame for three key sources of national and personal shame (military losses, cultural decline, and supposed racial defilement) to Jewish people as a means of rigidifying German and Jewish identity categories. Hitler mobilized national shame, therefore, to justify systematic legal exclusion and, ultimately, systematic violence. Thus, we posit a causal
relationship between emotions and collective violence and movements.
political scientists, who approach war primarily from materialist or interpretivist perspectives. This essay outlines a theory of the social-emotional world that draws on developments found in W.E.B. Du Bois’ “double consciousness” and C.H. Cooley’s “looking-glass self”, both of which help elucidate the sociological importance of emotions. This analysis also engages the pivotal role that Thomas
Scheff argues shame plays in generating war and violence, found in Bloody Revenge: Emotions, Nationalism, and War (1994). Specifically, we provide further analyses of the relationship between shame, anti-Semitism, and Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. We
examine how Hitler and the Nazi regime attached blame for three key sources of national and personal shame (military losses, cultural decline, and supposed racial defilement) to Jewish people as a means of rigidifying German and Jewish identity categories. Hitler mobilized national shame, therefore, to justify systematic legal exclusion and, ultimately, systematic violence. Thus, we posit a causal
relationship between emotions and collective violence and movements.
Research Interests:
It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a manner that is almost completely hidden. Modernity rationalizes the self and tends to ignore emotions, which can result in the total hiding of humiliation... more
It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a manner that is almost completely hidden. Modernity rationalizes the self and tends to ignore emotions, which can result in the total hiding of humiliation leads to vengeance. This essay outlines a theory of the social-emotional world implied in the work of C. H. Cooley, whose concept of the “looking-glass self” can be used as antidote to the assumptions of modernity: the self is based on “living in the mind” of others, resulting in feeling either pride or shame. This essay proposes that the complete hiding of shame can lead to feedback loops with no natural limit. These ideas may help explain the role of France in causing WWI, and Hitler's rise to power in Germany.
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It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a way that is almost completely hidden. Modernity individualizes the self and tends to ignore emotions. As a result, conflict can be caused by sequences in... more
It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a way that is almost completely hidden. Modernity individualizes the self and tends to ignore emotions. As a result, conflict can be caused by sequences in which the total hiding of humiliation leads to vengeance. This essay outlines a theory of the socialemotional world implied in the work of C. H. Cooley and others. Cooley’s concept of the “looking-glass self” can be used as antidote to the assumptions of modernity: the basic self is social and emotional: selves are based on “living in the mind” of others, with a result of feeling either pride of shame. Cooley discusses shame at some length, unlike most approaches, which tend to hide it. This essay proposes that the complete hiding of shame can lead to feedback loops (spirals) with no natural limit: shame about shame and anger is only the first step. Emotion backlogs can feed back when emotional experiences are completely hidden: avoiding all pain ca...
Research Interests: Engineering, Sociology, Ethnic Studies, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Latino/A Studies, and 9 moreCritical Race Studies, Race and Racism, Asian American Studies, Critical Race Theory, Race and Ethnicity, African American Studies, Ethnicity, Critical Mixed Race Studies, and Critical Mixed-Race/Multiracial Studies
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It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a way that is almost completely hidden. Modernity individualizes the self and tends to ignore emotions. As a result, conflict can be caused by sequences in... more
It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a way that is almost completely hidden. Modernity individualizes the self and tends to ignore emotions. As a result, conflict can be caused by sequences in which the total hiding of humiliation leads to vengeance. This essay outlines a theory of the social-emotional world implied in the work of C. H. Cooley and others. Cooley’s concept of the “looking-glass self” can be used as antidote to the assumptions of modernity: the basic self is social and emotional: selves are based on “living in the mind” of others, with a result of feeling either pride of shame. Cooley discusses shame at some length, unlike most approaches, which tend to hide it. This essay proposes that the complete hiding of shame can lead to feedback loops (spirals) with no natural limit: shame about shame and anger is only the first step. Emotion backlogs can feed back when emotional experiences are completely hidden: avoiding all pain c...
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Drawing from Machado’s own statements as well as his prose fiction, G. Reginald Daniel provides an alternative interpretation of how Machado’s writings were inflected by his life—especially the experience of his racial identity. He argues... more
Drawing from Machado’s own statements as well as his prose fiction, G. Reginald Daniel provides an alternative interpretation of how Machado’s writings were inflected by his life—especially the experience of his racial identity. He argues that Machado endeavored to transcend, rather than deny, his racial background by embracing his greater humanity. Machado presents a challenge to the notion that the most important thing about one’s personhood is one’s community of descent. Daniel maintains that Machado sought to universalize the experience of racial ambiguity and duality regarding the mulatto condition in Brazil into a fundamental mode of human existence. Accordingly, the conception of the hybrid human subject erodes the very foundation of raciological thinking.
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Machado de Assis displayed an acute sensitivity to the liminal space that Silviano Santiago refers to as the "space-in-between" (o entre-lugar), which shapes experience. This enhanced his ability to convey a nuanced relationship... more
Machado de Assis displayed an acute sensitivity to the liminal space that Silviano Santiago refers to as the "space-in-between" (o entre-lugar), which shapes experience. This enhanced his ability to convey a nuanced relationship between various categories of difference – particularly subject and object – compared with that of the normative modern worldview. Located in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, Machado's perspective, which views categories of difference as inherently relative and interlocking extremes on a continuum, displays an affinity with postmodern sensibilities.
Research Interests: Art and Postmodernity
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As a mulatto who was both black and white, yet neither, Machado de Assis developed a keen sensitivity to what Santiago refers to as "o entre-lugar", that is to say, the liminal or in-between space that shapes human existence.... more
As a mulatto who was both black and white, yet neither, Machado de Assis developed a keen sensitivity to what Santiago refers to as "o entre-lugar", that is to say, the liminal or in-between space that shapes human existence. Machado gave artistic expression to this phenomenon in a manner that encompassed broader contradictions and questions of multiplicity and ambiguity in terms of Brazil's national literary identity. His writings do not display a national consciousness or brasilidade(Brazilianness) expressed through the use of racial types, external descriptions of local flora, fauna, or idioms, as was the case with the anticolonial writings of many of his contemporaries and successors, which fostered a superficial cultural essentialism. In keeping with Bhabha's conceptualtization of postcolonial thought, Machado searched for a radical nationalism generated within a liminal space that contested the terms and territories of both colonialism and anticolonial nation...
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Abstract It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a manner that is almost completely hidden. Modernity rationalizes the self and tends to ignore emotions, which can result in the total hiding of... more
Abstract It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a manner that is almost completely hidden. Modernity rationalizes the self and tends to ignore emotions, which can result in the total hiding of humiliation leads to vengeance. This essay outlines a theory of the social-emotional world implied in the work of C. H. Cooley, whose concept of the “looking-glass self” can be used as antidote to the assumptions of modernity: the self is based on “living in the mind” of others, resulting in feeling either pride or shame. This essay proposes that the complete hiding of shame can lead to feedback loops with no natural limit. These ideas may help explain the role of France in causing WWI, and Hitler's rise to power in Germany.
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... Katia") Squires, Adam Gottdank, Lorene Boudaghians, Cynthia Nakashima, Elaine Minor, George E. Brooks, Karen Gatchel, Kaylynn Ewing, Lucinda ... Karen Moeck, Terry Wilson, Kook Dean, Greg Mayeda, Uriah Carr, Daphne... more
... Katia") Squires, Adam Gottdank, Lorene Boudaghians, Cynthia Nakashima, Elaine Minor, George E. Brooks, Karen Gatchel, Kaylynn Ewing, Lucinda ... Karen Moeck, Terry Wilson, Kook Dean, Greg Mayeda, Uriah Carr, Daphne Bell, Yolande Bell, Carol Clark, Tiffany Rocquemore ...
Race mixture, or mestizaje, has played a critical role in the history, culture, and politics of Latin America. In Degrees of Mixture, Degrees of Freedom, Peter Wade draws on a multidisciplinary research study in Mexico, Brazil, and... more
Race mixture, or mestizaje, has played a critical role in the history, culture, and politics of Latin America. In Degrees of Mixture, Degrees of Freedom, Peter Wade draws on a multidisciplinary research study in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. He shows how Latin American elites and outside observers have emphasized mixture's democratizing potential, depicting it as a useful resource for addressing problems of racism (claiming that race mixture undoes racial difference and hierarchy), while Latin American scientists participate in this narrative with claims that genetic studies of mestizos can help isolate genetic contributors to diabetes and obesity and improve health for all. Wade argues that, in the process, genomics produces biologized versions of racialized difference within the nation and the region, but a comparative approach nuances the simple idea that highly racialized societies give rise to highly racialized genomics. Wade examines the tensions between mixture and purity, and between equality and hierarchy in liberal political orders, exploring how ideas and scientific data about genetic mixture are produced and circulate through complex networks.
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... Abstract. Discusses the history of the hypodescent ("one-drop") rule in classifyingBlack/White biraciality and its influence on racial and ethnic identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved). Our... more
... Abstract. Discusses the history of the hypodescent ("one-drop") rule in classifyingBlack/White biraciality and its influence on racial and ethnic identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved). Our Apologies! ...
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APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser configuration. - alerts user that their session is about to expire - display, print, save, export, and email selected records - get My ...
... This manuscript would not have been possible without the editorial assistance provided by Josef Castañeda-Liles and Chris Bickel. Stephen Small, Edward Telles, and Howard Winant provided invaluable feedback that helped refine my... more
... This manuscript would not have been possible without the editorial assistance provided by Josef Castañeda-Liles and Chris Bickel. Stephen Small, Edward Telles, and Howard Winant provided invaluable feedback that helped refine my analysis. ...
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Page 1. Ietermarriage and Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-Century America PAUL R. SPICK ARD Page 2. Page 3. MIXED BLOOD Page 4. Page 5. MIXED BLOOD Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-Century America PAUL ...
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Book review of Who Is Black? One Nation's Definition by F. James Davis
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The debate in the 1990s surrounding census racial categories, along with the Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI), or Proposition 54-which was placed on the October 7, 2003, California recall ballot-provide excellent case studies of... more
The debate in the 1990s surrounding census racial categories, along with the Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI), or Proposition 54-which was placed on the October 7, 2003, California recall ballot-provide excellent case studies of "doing race" in an era in which color blindness has become the dominant racial discourse. In both cases, neoconservatives have made a strategic link between the rhetoric of color blindness and the multiracial phenomenon, using the latter as an indication of racial justice while denying continuing inequities and undercutting the tools necessary to pursue racial justice.
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Examines the differences between first-generation and multigenerational multiracial-identifying individuals as well as whether and to what extent a multiracial identity is the basis of a collective subjectivity.
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Because modernity rationalizes the self, emotions have been undeveloped at best and at worst marginalized in mainstream social theory. Moreover, emotions as causes of war in modern societies has not been well received, particularly among... more
Because modernity rationalizes the self, emotions have been undeveloped at best and at worst marginalized in mainstream social theory. Moreover, emotions as causes of war in modern societies has not been well received, particularly among historians and political scientists, who approach war primarily from materialist or interpretivist perspectives. This essay outlines a theory of the social-emotional world that draws on developments found in W.E.B. Du Bois’ “double consciousness” and C.H. Cooley’s “looking-glass self”, both of which help elucidate the sociological importance of emotions. This analysis also engages the pivotal role that Thomas Scheff argues shame plays in generating war and violence, found in Bloody Revenge: Emotions, Nationalism, and War (1994). Specifically, we provide further analyses of the relationship between shame, anti-Semitism, and Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. We examine how Hitler and the Nazi regime attached blame for three key sources of national and personal shame (military losses, cultural decline, and supposed racial defilement) to Jewish people as a means of rigidifying German and Jewish identity categories. Hitler mobilized national shame, therefore, to justify systematic legal exclusion and, ultimately, systematic violence. Thus, we posit a causal relationship between emotions and collective violence and movements.
Research Interests:
Traditionally, Brazil has been contrasted with the United States in terms of its long history of racial and cultural blending. In addition, Brazil has differentiated its population into~ European Brazilians (brancos), multiracial... more
Traditionally, Brazil has been contrasted with the United States in terms of its long history of racial and cultural blending. In addition, Brazil has differentiated its population into~ European Brazilians (brancos), multiracial individuals (pardos), and Blacks (pre-tos). This ternary model of race relations led to fluid racial/cultural markers and was accompanied by the absence of legalized barriers to equality in both the public and private spheres. It has been argued that in Brazil, not racial but class and cultural signi-fiers determined one's identity and status in the social hierarchy. Brazil's racial democracy contrasted sharply with United States race relations. In the United States, European Americans have tried to preserve not only their cultural and racial "purity" but also their dominant status by relegating multiracial individuals to the subdominant group, for instance, by designating as Black everyone of African descent. 1 Furthermore, this binary model of race relations served as the underpinning for Jim Crow segregation: a generalized system of legal and informal exclusion that prevented individuals of African descent from having contact with Whites as equals in political , economic, educational, residential, associational, and interpersonal spheres. During the 1950s and 1960s, Jim Crow segregation was dismantled in the United States and the myth of racial democracy began to erode in Brazil. Because of changes that have taken place since, the trajectories of race relations in these two countries began to converge. The Black consciousness movement in Brazil, which emerged in 1978 with the formation of the MNU (the Unified Black Movement), began challenging Brazil's ternary model. Part of its strategy was to get more individuals of blended African and European descent to identify themselves as African Brazilian rather than multiracial. During the same period, the multiracial consciousness movement in the United States emerged in 1979 with the founding of I-Pride (Interracial/Intercultural Pride). This educational and support organization for interracial couples and multiracial-identified individuals began challenging the United States' binary model of race relations. The objective was to make it possible for individuals who choose to embrace both their African and European backgrounds to identify themselves as multiracial.
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In Brazil, pervasive miscegenation and the lack of formal legal barriers to racial equality contributed to its image as a "racial democracy." Accordingly, the Brazilian racial order has historically been characterized by a ternary racial... more
In Brazil, pervasive miscegenation and the lack of formal legal barriers to
racial equality contributed to its image as a "racial democracy." Accordingly, the Brazilian racial order has historically been characterized by a ternary racial project that designates individuals as white, multiracial, and black and that supported the idea that social inequality is primarily attributable to differences in class and culture rather than race. Since the 1970s, the black movement has articulated a binary racial project that combines black and multiracial individuals. into a single African Brazilian category distinct from whites to heighten awareness of and mobilize opposition to the real racial discrimination that exists in Brazil. Beginning in 200 l, the multiracial movement began challenging this binary conceptualization of the Brazilian racial order. The goal has been to defend and reassert the historical process of racial blending that has characterized the Brazilian people as well as affirm the right of individuals and the nation by extension to identify as "multiracial." This chapter examines these competing narratives of Brazilian racial formation and national identity, particularly as they relate to ongoing formations of "blackness" and "whiteness." This is especially meaningful given the history of African slavery, and the unique attitudes, discourse, policy, and behavior that have crystallized around individuals of African descent in the formation of Brazil's national identity.
racial equality contributed to its image as a "racial democracy." Accordingly, the Brazilian racial order has historically been characterized by a ternary racial project that designates individuals as white, multiracial, and black and that supported the idea that social inequality is primarily attributable to differences in class and culture rather than race. Since the 1970s, the black movement has articulated a binary racial project that combines black and multiracial individuals. into a single African Brazilian category distinct from whites to heighten awareness of and mobilize opposition to the real racial discrimination that exists in Brazil. Beginning in 200 l, the multiracial movement began challenging this binary conceptualization of the Brazilian racial order. The goal has been to defend and reassert the historical process of racial blending that has characterized the Brazilian people as well as affirm the right of individuals and the nation by extension to identify as "multiracial." This chapter examines these competing narratives of Brazilian racial formation and national identity, particularly as they relate to ongoing formations of "blackness" and "whiteness." This is especially meaningful given the history of African slavery, and the unique attitudes, discourse, policy, and behavior that have crystallized around individuals of African descent in the formation of Brazil's national identity.
ln this increasingly globalized world it is critical to deconstruct essentialized notions of racial (and cultural) difference that accompanied European colonialism as well as to demystify the notion of a self-contained Europe.... more
ln this increasingly globalized world it is critical to deconstruct essentialized notions of racial (and cultural) difference that accompanied European colonialism as well as to demystify the notion of a self-contained Europe. Accordingly, the study of globalization and global human history should be grounded in the concept of postcolonial "critical hybridity." This also challenges the rigid strategic essentialism espoused by radical Afrocentrism and interrogates any globalization of the U.S. one-drop rule as an antiracist tactic. The goal should be to embrace a moderate Afrocentrism premised on strategic antiessentialism, which is not only compatible with postcolonial critical hybridity but also catalytic in the formation of a "postcolonial blackness." The 2003 publication of the initial conclusions of the Human Genome Project and Human Genome Diversity Project underscores the legitimacy of the concept of critical hybridity. This research indicates that although certain geno-phenotypical traits may mark off population aggregates as different from one another, in fact, a "multiracial" lineage is the norm rather than the exception. The implications of this "new genetics" have been a cause for both celebration and concern in terms Of the connection between race, pharmacology, justice, genealogy, and intelligence. The "Molecular Portrait of Humanity" that emerges from these studies reiterates the limited relevance of race as a biological concept and portrays humans not as fixed "racial" essences but rather, the end result of extensive "racial" blending. Beginning in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the coloniali expansion of Western European
Critics historically interpreted Machado de Assis as a mulatto who broke through the wall of second-class citizenship and studiously avoided any reference to his racial origins. His life and writings refl ect a disinterest in slavery and... more
Critics historically interpreted Machado de Assis as a mulatto who broke
through the wall of second-class citizenship and studiously avoided any
reference to his racial origins. His life and writings refl ect a disinterest in slavery and race relations as well as other contemporary social issues. Critics argued that Machado’s literary works, far from concerning themselves with questions of race, much less slavery, focus on the upper echelon—the urban bourgeoisie—which was a small and overwhelmingly white segment of Brazilian society By the mid-twentieth century, critics discovered that Machado did in fact display an interest in slavery, race relations, and other social concerns. The plantation on which Brazil’s political economy depended appears in its most developed form in his later novels, yet even in those works it is not central. Indeed, later scholarship asserted that Machado’s public pronouncements, as well as the treatment of slavery and race relations in his writings, seem both meek and sparse compared to several prominent late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Afro-Brazilian writers such as Luís Gama (1830–82), José do Patrocínio (1853–1905), and Lima Barreto (1881–1922). Drawing from Machado’s own statements, as well as his prose fiction, I provide an alternative interpretation as to how Machado’s writings were inflected by the experience of his racial identity. I argue that Machado endeavored to transcend , rather than deny , his racial background by embracing his greater humanity. In his writings, Machado sought to reflect this by universalizing the experience of racial ambiguity and duality regarding the “mulatto” condition in Brazil into a fundamental mode of human existence. For Machado, the struggle with duality and ambiguity
is both personal and universal.
through the wall of second-class citizenship and studiously avoided any
reference to his racial origins. His life and writings refl ect a disinterest in slavery and race relations as well as other contemporary social issues. Critics argued that Machado’s literary works, far from concerning themselves with questions of race, much less slavery, focus on the upper echelon—the urban bourgeoisie—which was a small and overwhelmingly white segment of Brazilian society By the mid-twentieth century, critics discovered that Machado did in fact display an interest in slavery, race relations, and other social concerns. The plantation on which Brazil’s political economy depended appears in its most developed form in his later novels, yet even in those works it is not central. Indeed, later scholarship asserted that Machado’s public pronouncements, as well as the treatment of slavery and race relations in his writings, seem both meek and sparse compared to several prominent late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Afro-Brazilian writers such as Luís Gama (1830–82), José do Patrocínio (1853–1905), and Lima Barreto (1881–1922). Drawing from Machado’s own statements, as well as his prose fiction, I provide an alternative interpretation as to how Machado’s writings were inflected by the experience of his racial identity. I argue that Machado endeavored to transcend , rather than deny , his racial background by embracing his greater humanity. In his writings, Machado sought to reflect this by universalizing the experience of racial ambiguity and duality regarding the “mulatto” condition in Brazil into a fundamental mode of human existence. For Machado, the struggle with duality and ambiguity
is both personal and universal.
Research Interests:
The year 2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia,2 which declared anti-miscegenation laws to be unconstitutional. For many, the Loving decision represents a symbolic... more
The year 2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 United
States Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia,2 which declared
anti-miscegenation laws to be unconstitutional. For many, the Loving
decision represents a symbolic turning point in the history of United
States racial politics. Some even celebrate the Loving decision and the
argued subsequent “biracial baby boom” as the beginning of a postracial
United States. Indeed, statistics indicating that fifteen percent
of all new marriages are interracial and polls suggesting that a majority
of Americans today approve of interracial marriage are cited as
evidence of the erosion of racial boundaries and tensions. For many,
the 2008 election of Barack Hussein Obama, the offspring of an African father and European American mother, as the forty-fourth President—
and the first Black President—of the United States similarly
marked a symbolic victory affirming that racism has finally been overcome
and the United States is a truly post-racial society. However,
the year 2017 also marks the end of Obama’s presidency and—importantly—
the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the
United States. Consequently, we are not only forced to examine this
critical juncture in the history of United States racial politics, but are
also required to critically examine the past fifty years and ask the following
question: to what extent have the symbolic victories of Loving
and the election of Obama been imbued with aspirations that have yet
to be fully actualized? Loving and the election of President Obama are
undoubtedly important milestones in the history of United States jurisprudence
and racial politics. Yet a careful analysis of interracial
marriage trends, the politics of mixed race identity, and the waves of
backlash against Obama’s presidency—which range from contesting
his legitimacy and opposing his political efforts to explicitly racist
rhetoric and the recent election of Donald Trump as President—suggest
that the post-racial potential promised by Loving has remained
more aspirational than actualized. Accordingly, in order to understand
the legacy of Loving, we must think critically about interracial
intimacy and contemporary United States race relations, taking into
account the persistent inequities imbedded in the United States racial
order and the continued relevance of anti-Blackness in the struggles
for a more egalitarian society.
States Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia,2 which declared
anti-miscegenation laws to be unconstitutional. For many, the Loving
decision represents a symbolic turning point in the history of United
States racial politics. Some even celebrate the Loving decision and the
argued subsequent “biracial baby boom” as the beginning of a postracial
United States. Indeed, statistics indicating that fifteen percent
of all new marriages are interracial and polls suggesting that a majority
of Americans today approve of interracial marriage are cited as
evidence of the erosion of racial boundaries and tensions. For many,
the 2008 election of Barack Hussein Obama, the offspring of an African father and European American mother, as the forty-fourth President—
and the first Black President—of the United States similarly
marked a symbolic victory affirming that racism has finally been overcome
and the United States is a truly post-racial society. However,
the year 2017 also marks the end of Obama’s presidency and—importantly—
the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the
United States. Consequently, we are not only forced to examine this
critical juncture in the history of United States racial politics, but are
also required to critically examine the past fifty years and ask the following
question: to what extent have the symbolic victories of Loving
and the election of Obama been imbued with aspirations that have yet
to be fully actualized? Loving and the election of President Obama are
undoubtedly important milestones in the history of United States jurisprudence
and racial politics. Yet a careful analysis of interracial
marriage trends, the politics of mixed race identity, and the waves of
backlash against Obama’s presidency—which range from contesting
his legitimacy and opposing his political efforts to explicitly racist
rhetoric and the recent election of Donald Trump as President—suggest
that the post-racial potential promised by Loving has remained
more aspirational than actualized. Accordingly, in order to understand
the legacy of Loving, we must think critically about interracial
intimacy and contemporary United States race relations, taking into
account the persistent inequities imbedded in the United States racial
order and the continued relevance of anti-Blackness in the struggles
for a more egalitarian society.
Research Interests:
A theoretical examination of race and ethnic relations in terms of pluralism and integration based on equality versus those based on inequality.
Research Interests:
An insider's view of the debate in the 1990's on changes in the collection and tabulation of data on race and ethnicity, as in the census and other official forms, which would make it possible for individuals to identify as multiracial.