What the Future America Will Look Like

This chapter begins with the historical antecedents of interracial dating and marriages (IRM) within the United States and then the increasing rates of IRM in the 21st century. Several forms of discrimination against interracial couples such as racial microaggressions and the transmission of implicit racial attitudes within the family, are analyzed. The Marketplace Economy Theory is also examined. It attempts to explain the existence of IR couples. Theories behind the origins of racism against IRMs are explored. Asian American dating interracially is also discussed. The latter section examines the implications of IRMs for mental health counselors. It provides recommendations of techniques and special therapy styles that may be more effective for IR couples and IRMs during therapy sessions. These techniques (including goal-oriented sessions, based on strengths, psychodynamic approaches, and postmodern approaches) may be more efficacious due to the unique problems IR couples encounter. Suggestions are provided for why further research into biracial and multiracial children is needed.

RACE, PLACE, AND RELATIONSHIP FORMATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Despite the increased use of dating technology for finding and forming romantic relationships, location remains relevant for relationship formation. While current research on relationship formation attends to the ratio of marriageable men to women, marital attitudes, and gendered racial exclusion, this research does not always consider a nuanced look at how location can also constrain opportunities to make short- or long-term romantic connections. Drawing on interviews with 111 Asian, White, Black, and Latina heterosexual college-educated women between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-three, I find that regardless of race/ethnicity, women observe that some places provide limited opportunities to meet men and that the mismatch between their dating norms, beliefs, and/or expectations for relationships and the location where they reside make their search more difficult. Women of color additionally note that some locations provide fewer opportunities for same-race and/or interracial dating than others. I also find that women of color are more likely to employ strategies to address their locational barriers than White women. Therefore, I argue that not only does location continue to matter for forming romantic connections in the digital age, but that location and race also intersect to create unique locational barriers for women of color. This intersection, consequently, demonstrates that the opportunities for relationship formation remain stratified despite the rise of dating technology.

Border-crossing as Sexual Subjects

Transnational migration shapes young people’s sexual subjectivity in profound ways as cultural and racial borders are crossed. In this context, interracial relationships occupy an uneasy position in young Chinese’s lives against parental authority, patriarchal gender relations, nationalism, and assimilation. As a racial minority in New Zealand (NZ), the Chinese diaspora’s notions of masculinity and femininity are both subjugated by racial stereotypes, constraining the possibilities of sexual expression and producing uneven power relations in intimate relationships. Simultaneously subject to assumptions of sexual sameness by co-ethnics and sexual difference by NZ society, Chinese young people must constantly negotiate the two tugging sets of racial relations in their practice of interracial dating. The entanglement of these power relations illustrates that being diasporic is simultaneously a racial/gendered/sexual project.

College students' attitudes toward interracial relationships: Variations by student race and campus type

Objectives: In this study, variability in college students’ attitudes toward interracial dating and marriage relationships as a function of student race and campus type (predominantly White vs. ethno-racially diverse) was examined. Methods: Undergraduate students ages 18-24 were recruited from a large public multicampus university in the Northeast. Using an online survey, students (N = 231) provided demographic information (e.g., gender, age, family income) and reported on their interracial relationship history and attitudes toward dating and marriage relationships. Results: Analyses of variance revealed significant differences in students’ attitudes toward interracial dating and marriage depending on students’ race and the type of campus they attended. White students enrolled at ethno-racially diverse urban campuses reported significantly lower approval of interracial dating and marriage relationships than their White peers at the predominantly White main campus and their peers of color at the predominantly White campus and the ethno-racially diverse regional campuses. Conclusions: The findings highlight the role that the particular geographical-cultural profile of campuses plays in college students’ attitudes toward interracial relationships when considered in tandem with students’ racial background.

“A Little More Ghetto, a Little Less Cultured”: Are There Racial Stereotypes about Interracial Daters in the United States?

Negative stereotypes about racial minorities, particularly African Americans, persist in the United States. Given the imperviousness of racial stereotypes about minorities, can individuals who date interracially also be stereotyped? The author investigates this by conducting the first systematic study of men’s attitudes toward white and black women who date outside their race. First, the author inductively uncovers these stereotypes through focus groups. Second, to assess these stereotypes’ nationwide prevalence and to minimize social desirability bias, the author applies a survey experiment, in which interracial dating is subtly primed via photographs of couples, to a national sample of men. The findings are mixed. In the experiment, crossing the white-black racial boundary does activate negative stereotypes for women, which may have reputational costs, but mostly among older white male respondents. These costs include changes in men’s perceptions of their class status, cultural values, and even sexual practices. In conclusion, interracial dating is a key social site where gender-based moral norms are policed, class divisions are constructed, and racial boundaries are maintained.

The Meaning of Honorary Whiteness for Asian Americans: Boundary Expansion or Something Else?

Research on interracial intimacy divides between quantitative comparisons of interracial and same-race marriages and qualitative studies of existing interracial unions. This article bridges the divide by examining how interracial dating histories differ from same-race dating histories among Asian Americans, a group that sociologists consistently regard as potentially having attained a racial status as “honorary whites.” Synthesizing the literatures on ethnic boundaries, homogamy, and interracial intimacy, the author examines the role of boundary processes in differentiating same-race and interracial dating histories. What does becoming honorary whites, as indicated by participation in racial exogamy, actually mean for Asian Americans? Using a unique sample of 83 Asian Americans with a wide range of dating histories, the author finds that social networks are a crucial mechanism for differentiating racial endogamy and exogamy. In addition, my results show that becoming honorary whites has critically involved boundary repositioning, rather than boundary transcendence, blurring, or expansion.