“A Fundamental Human Right”? Mixed-Race Marriage and the Meaning of Rights in the Postwar British Commonwealth

This article explores the removal or exclusion in the late 1940s of people in interracial marriages from two corners of the newly formed Commonwealth of Nations, Australia and Britain's southern African colonies. The stories of Ruth and Sereste Khama, exiled from colonial Botswana, and those of Chinese refugees threatened with deportation and separation from their white Australian wives, reveal how legal rearticulations in the immediate postwar era created new, if quixotic, points of opposition for ordinary people to make their voices heard. As the British Empire became the Commonwealth, codifying the freedoms of the imperial subject, and ideas of universal human rights “irrespective of race, color, or creed” slowly emerged, and claims of rights long denied seemed to take on a renewed meaning. The sanctity of marriage and family, which played central metaphorical and practical roles for both the British Empire and the United Nations, was a primary motor of contention in both cases, and was mobilized in both metaphorical and practical ways to press for change. Striking similarities between our chosen case studies reveal how ideals of imperial domesticity and loyalty, and the universalism of the new global “family of man,” were simultaneously invoked to undermine discourses of racial purity. Our analysis makes a significant contribution to studies of gender and empire, as well as the history of human rights, an ideal which in the late 1940s was being vernacularized alongside existing forms of claim-making and political organization in local contexts across the world.

A Discursive Examination of White Americans’ Attitudes about White-Black Interracial Marriages in USA

The primary objective of this article is to manifest by means of discourse analysis the attitudes of White Americans towards White-Black interracial marriages. The research draws on qualitative analysis of the discourse of some white Americans to find out the genuine convictions they bear about interracial unions, especially those incorporating Blacks and Whites. Regardless of the fact that White Americans have asserted their approval of White-Black marriages, the results of the study reveal that some White-Americans are still not in favour of their close relatives marrying outside their own race. As Van Dijk (1992) postulates, one of the distinctive peculiarities of contemporary racism discourse is its denial. On accounts of rigid constraints posed upon overt expression of racist perspectives, individuals bring about a set of discursive strategies that enable the deliverance of negative constructs without being trapped by racism charges. In addition to the denial of racism, the results of the research disclose various strategic choices through which white Americans legitimize their views towards white-black interracial marriages. Such choices embark on justifications, denying, excuses, positive self-presentation, negative other-presentation, and blaming the victim. (Van Dijk: 1992)

Visualizing “International” and Korean-Japanese Marriage in Print Media

This chapter discusses married life and the sensationalization of interracial marriages in print culture, and examines “international” marriages in newspapers and magazines, including Yŏsŏng (Women). It explains how the print media embraced “internationally” married couples as celebrities in the mid-1930s, specifically couples that consisted of Korean and non-Korean or non-Japanese partners. It also explores essays and interviews featured in the magazine Naisen ittai, looking at descriptions of the married life of Korean–Japanese couples. The chapter illustrates the ways the international marriage discourse strengthened the already widespread desire for Western-style homes and emphasizes the cosmopolitan impulses of this desire. It argues that the sensationalist stories and essays that contributed to the “sweet home” discourse accommodated and strengthened the Korean–Japanese intermarriage ideology by creating a new cosmopolitan model of “intimacy” for all forms of intermarriage.

Examining the Relationship between Social Support and Interracial Divorce in Louisiana

This study examines how social support is related to divorce among interracial couples in Louisiana. Using longitudinal, couple-level data from the Marriage Matters Survey, we analyze how measures generally associated with divorce (e.g., couple-level characteristics, individual characteristics, and premarital events) operate similarly within interracial and same-race unions, and whether these measures moderate the relationship between social support and divorce among interracial couples. Results indicate that interracial marriages are not more likely to divorce than same-race unions, and lacking social support does not predict divorce for any marriage. Irrespective of marriage type, premarital counseling reduces the odds of divorce, while marriages with women who had more education than their husband and who cohabitated with someone other than their husband prior to marriage increase the likelihood of divorce. This study contributes towards understanding the mechanisms associated with interracial divorce and questions the claim that interracial marriages are less stable than same-race marriages.

Deconstructing discourses of diversity

Despite the growing number of cross-cultural adolescents from immigrants and families formed through international/interracial marriages in South Korea, empirical studies investigating newcomer adolescents’ identity positioning in secondary education have been scarce. Drawing upon Ruíz’s (1984) framework for language policy and planning and Cummins’ (1986, 2001) empowerment framework for minority education, this article investigates how diversity is conceptualised in South Korea through a case study of multicultural education. Specifically, the article examines how newcomer adolescents’ linguistic and cultural identities are perceived by teachers and peers in two high schools. The findings revealed that diversity is dominantly viewed as an impediment to academic success for newcomer youth and is only appreciated once students are fully assimilated into Korean society. The concept of diversity as a resource and right and the notion of multicultural and multilingual identities in the Korean educational context are absent, or hidden, at best. Although there are examples where newcomer learners see diversity as empowerment and resources for their identity construction and positionality, this orientation has not been acknowledged in educational practices. The study calls for conceptualizing diversity as empowerment and resources as ethical lenses to move away from ethnocentric and deficit orientations.

Pure Marriage

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Mormons preached against interracial marriages and in favor of patriarchal marriages. This chapter explores the interrelationships between race, gender, and sexuality in Mormon thought in this period. As part of a broader conservative investment in values of home and family, Latter-day Saints embraced these teachings as core doctrines to stabilize racial and gender differences in the face of erosion of difference. These teachings underwent changes after a 1978 revelation ended priesthood and temple restrictions for Black LDS members.

‘Everywhere is home’: The paradox of ‘homing’ and child upbringing among Nigerian-Chinese families in Guangzhou city

Africa–China relations are facilitating different flows and inducing mobilities that have produced Afro-Chinese families in Guangzhou, China. This article examines how Nigerian-Chinese couples construct and embrace contradictory notions of home, as well as how their child upbringing practices manifest this paradox. The article uses data from life history interviews, repeated visits and in social hangouts involving both Nigerian-Chinese couples and individual Nigerian men in interracial marriages. Whereas Nigerian men tend to feel less at home, owing to problems such as perceived Chinese identity exclusivity, the uncertainty of life, and their experiences of discrimination and racism, their Chinese spouses, as internal migrants themselves, also feel similarly unwelcome in Guangzhou. Furthermore, Nigerian-Chinese couples feel obligated to secure the futures of their Afro-Chinese children due to a suspicion that Chinese society may not accept them. The parenting styles, hopes and aspirations revealed by Nigerian-Chinese couples regarding their children show that they view home as an un-centred category.