Interracial relationships are potrayed as social phenomenons to be fetishized and commodified. And perhaps most unforgivingly, this outlook strips the conversation of the only thing worth discussing: how power operates in our most intimate spaces. Media commonly makes the mistake of portraying interracial relationships with white people as shining examples of racial progress [and] assuming interracial relationships between people of color are devoid of any need for progress, or even learning. Perhaps the most harmful fiction the media has pushed is that interracial relationships are special. At their core, interracial relationships are deeply boring. Skip navigation! Story from Unbothered. Last Updated December 7, , PM. The way we talk about interracial relationships in the U. Currently, interracial relationships are portrayed as social phenomenons to be fetishized and commodified. And proper recognition of power dynamics is completely at odds with the mission of commodification. Interracial relationship influencers on TikTok and Instagram are a prime example of this. Under mixedfamily and interracialcouple , one can find the most subtly noxious — and frankly, incredibly cringeworthy — discourse about race. Not only are relationships between white people and people of color the focus of most conversations about interracial dating, there is a focus on the non-white partner being Black. But unequal — and intricate — racial or ethnic power dynamics can exist between any two people of different identities. When we erase the realities of non-white people in relationships, those power dynamics and instances of harm are allowed to flourish because they are often unexamined, unchallenged, and ignored.
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For some people, that familiarity can make the power dynamics that do arise easier to navigate. These relationships have shown her that shared experiences matter a great deal. Layla agrees. Drawing from my own romantic and platonic relationships with non-Black people of color, I know that sharing experiences of racism do provide us with common ground. But so do more positive things like cultural traditions, habits, and memories around family. However, it is those same shared experiences that make it harder to discuss problematic or hurtful things that might come up. It feels almost like turning your back on something that previously bonded you together. If media commonly makes the mistake of portraying interracial relationships with white people as shining examples of racial progress, then it also makes the mistake of assuming interracial relationships between people of color are devoid of any need for progress, or even learning. With white people, it feels more cut and dry. The intimacy of interracial relationships between people of color can lead to more complex and fulfilling discussions, but also more conflict over how to deal with it. Aisha is a Black woman married to an Indian-American man, and she says that she and her husband never see themselves represented in the media. Because of that, she feels a lot of the challenges Black people face in relationships with non-Black people of color can be erased by the public. But even in social media and pop culture representation of interracial relationships with white people, white racism is heavily sanitized or ignored. Here, biracial children — and particularly those without white parents — are exotified. When they exist outside of whiteness, people in interracial relationships and multiracial people are often denied their humanity. Take for example, the show mixed-ish. When we hold up relationships with white people as a sign of radical social change — they most definitely are not — we position Black women with no proximity to whiteness and no distance from Blackness as the enemy of racial progress. And perhaps the most harmful fiction the media has pushed is that interracial relationships are special. I am just a person living my life with my partner, and to say all of that is a political act or that it's anti-racist, is really lacking in nuance.Seeking freedom and acceptance within your own romance is something we all must do, but seeking a world that extends freedom and acceptance to the most vulnerable people requires moving away from the myopia often present in these relationship dynamics and being willing to have actual conversations about power, accountability, and revolution. The revolution will not happen in the bedroom. It will not happen if we learn a new language or a new recipe. Those are all nice and often necessary things, but to have real discussions, we have to start getting serious about discussing power and decentering whiteness. But after three weeks of regular shifts, s. Your friend points out how your face is perfectly illuminated by the setting sun, and they whip out their phone to capt. Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault in a way that may be distressing to some readers. Being the other woman was something I began. It is embarrassing — shameful almost — to admit to being lonely in your 20s. For a significant part. The introduction of Tinder in revolutionised the way people thought about online dating. You only need to look at the proliferation of dating terms ov. There was a period in the s when personality quizzes were inescapable.
https://www.elitesingles.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/85/2020/06/1711_el_en_ta-slideshow_black-and-white-dating-350x264.jpgAmericans See More Interracial Relationships in Advertising
A happy interracial family hugging each other while wearing apparel from clothing retailer Old Navy. A smiling Black man giving his white girlfriend an engagement ring in a State Farm insurance ad. And a biracial couple and their kids on a road trip in a vehicle made by Hyundai. These are among the increasing number of advertisements selling everything from cereal to prescription drugs that portray the American family in ways few companies and advertising agencies would have dared a generation ago. More than 50 years after the U. Supreme Court struck down laws banning interracial marriage, a growing number of ads feature interracial couples with biracial children. In Alexandria, Virginia, Kelly Thalman, who is white and a single mother to a biracial child, is glad to see the trend. But he said he wonders why many interracial ads focus on white and Black people and not other minority groups. Mark Jones, president of Jones Advertising in Seattle, Washington, said his agency tries to reflect multiculturalism in its ads. In , a Cheerios cereal TV commercial featuring a Black and white couple with their daughter drew an influx of racist and other negative comments. Positive or negative, companies know they are going to get a reaction to their interracial advertising, explained Subodh Bhat, a marketing professor at San Francisco State University in California. He said that while the ads may attract consumers from biracial families or relationships, they also pull in customers whose values align with the diversity in TV commercials and other advertising. While interracial ads may reflect an increasingly diverse America becoming more of a melting pot, they are not a mirror on society, according to Morgan State University Professor Jason Johnson, who is currently doing research on interracial advertising.
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The reality, he said, is a Black man with a white woman is more common in America. He said such ads are not directed just toward interracial consumers and that many still cater to racial biases and narrow comfort zones. Kelly Thalman hopes the trend continues. Home United States U. Follow Us. Previous Next. March 07, AM. Deborah Block. It is also smart business. More recently, the State Farm engagement ad received negative comments on Twitter. More US Stories. All About America. The Day in Photos.
What We Lose When We Focus On Whiteness In Interracial Relationships
November 20, Back to top. The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to provide readers with a quick reference for questions about cross-race relationships. In terms of this bibliography, "cross-race relationships" and "interracial relationships" refer only to close interracial relationships, such as friendships and romantic relationships, rather than cross-race contact with no attendant feelings of closeness. A list of questions regarding cross-race relationships has been compiled below to increase ease of navigation throughout this document. Simply click on a question to go to the related section. The bibliography has also been organized by topic, so you can also click on one of the topics listed below for a review of the literature on that subject. Click on the questions below to learn more about cross-race relationships:. What situational characteristics foster cross-race friendships among children and teenagers? What situational characteristics foster cross-race friendships among adults? What individual characteristics and motives predict cross-race romantic relationships? What individual characteristics and motives predict cross-race friendships among children? What are some of the barriers to the formation and maintenance of cross-race relationships? What factors are necessary for good maintenance of cross-race relationships?What are the characteristics of children's cross-race friendships? What are the characteristics of adult's cross-race friendships? What are the general social attitudes towards interracial relationships? What are the benefits of cross-race friendships for school children? Introduction While racial inequality still poses a major social problem in the U. Indeed, many studies have associated interracial relationships with less prejudicial attitudes. Among school children, high proportions of cross-race friendships have been linked with social skills and achievement aspirations. However, cross-race relationships are scarce among Americans, and social attitudes towards interracial relationships appear to be mixed. The findings from this review indicate that structural factors can actively affect intergroup relations. Changes in school structure from tradition to cooperative learning programs increase children's formation of cross-race friendships, as well as friendship quality.
What's behind the rise of interracial marriage in the US?
The research suggests that encouraging cooperative learning programs while maintaining small, diverse classrooms will increase proportions of cross-race friendships among school children. Interracial friendships appear to be less stable, but individuals with high proportions of cross-race friends have greater stability and interracial friendship quality than individuals with low proportions of cross-race friends. Therefore, children with high proportions of interracial friendships appear to be more open to future cross-race interactions. Cross-race friendships reduce racial bias and increase social competence and leadership skills. Overall, it appears that U. Social distance is the degree to which one allows particular social groups to become part of their close social network. Interracial romantic relationships represent the smallest degree of social distance. Although interracial relationships are uncommon, they are characterized by mutual respect, support, and collective orientations towards common goals, which is in stark contrast to popularly held beliefs that interracial romantic relationships must be inherently dysfunctional. Individuals tend to enter interracial romantic relationships for the same reason others enter same-race romantic relationships: compatible personality characteristics. Unfortunately, interracial romantic relationships endure the harsher societal rejection than cross-race friendships which may pose a significant barrier towards their formation and maintenance. However, Americans who grow up in integrated neighborhoods and schools are more likely to be involved in an interracial romantic relationship. How common are cross-race friendships in the U. Overall, the proportions of cross-race friendships in the U. This trend is most pronounced for Caucasian-Americans. Tuch, Sigelman, and MacDonald report data from a massive longitudinal survey of American youth collected annually from to Respondents were asked about the composition of their group of friends. Figure 1 represents the percentage of African-American and Caucasian high school seniors with all or almost all same-race friends for the last quarter of the 20 th century. The percentage of African-Americans with all or almost all same-race friends is lower than for Caucasians, which reflects findings described throughout this bibliography.
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African-Americans appeared to have an increase in cross-race friendships during the late s and early s, but this trend reversed in the early s. By the mids, the percentage of African-Americans with all or almost all same-race friends was basically equivalent to the percentage in the mid s. Caucasian high school students' interracial friendliness appears to have increased, as the percentage of Caucasians with all or almost all same-race friends had a steady decline over the last quarter of the 20 th century. However, even though the percentage of Caucasians with interracial friendships increased over the study period, they still exhibit less interracial friendliness defined by sheer number of interracial friends than the African-American respondents by the mids. While conducting their studies, many research papers included the percentage of cross-race friendships in their sample. Figure 2 displays the percentage of interracial friendships reported by each of five research papers that studied interracial friendships for African-American and Caucasian children. This difference is important, as it highlights how different methodologies can yield very different results. Overall, it appears as if both Caucasian and African-American school children have elected fewer cross-race peers over the course of studies conducted between and , with Caucasians showing a larger reduction than African-Americans. How common are interracial romantic relationships in the United States? The prevalence of interracial romantic relationships is low in the United States, and varies by ethnicity. Figure 3 below displays the percentage of U. The data was collected in March, by the U. Census Bureau through the annual Current Population Survey. In general, Caucasians and African-Americans were much less likely than Hispanic-Americans and Americans of other races to be cohabiting with an interracial partner, perhaps reflecting the harsher societal attitudes towards African-American-Caucasian unions. It appears that unmarried cohabiting partners are more likely to be interracial than married partners. An interesting point is that the composition of interracial relationships is qualitatively different from the likelihood of cross-race relationships. Even though Caucasians have the lowest percentage of interracial cohabiting relationships they still account for the majority of interracial cohabiting relationships in the U. Figure 4 represents the proportion of all interracial cohabiting partners irrespective of marital status accounted for by each ethnicity.
Almost All Millennials Accept Interracial Dating and Marriage
Being the numerical majority, even though a cohabiting Caucasian is least likely to live with an interracial partner than a non-Caucasian, individuals in cohabiting interracial relationships are most likely to be Caucasian. Certain environments increase children's opportunities for and initiation of cross-race friendships. Structural factors such as teaching orientation, reward structures, demographic diversity, and classroom size can be effectively harnessed by schools to improve cross-race interactions among classmates. Overall, cooperative learning programs Slavin, a and small, demographically diverse classrooms seem to have met with the most success in increasing the proportion of children's cross-race friendships. The opportunity hypothesis proposes that cross-race friendships increase as the opportunities for cross-race friendships increase. Therefore, children in schools where most students are of other races should have more cross-race friendships than children in schools where most students are of their same race. An underlying assumption of these studies was that members of ethnic minorities are constantly surrounded with more cross- than same-race others. However, many studies have shown that a barrier towards societal integration is a consistent trend towards self-segregation Slavin, b; Pinkney, In addition, many controversies still exist about government sanctioned segregation through the use of bussing programs New York-WABC, According to these sources, even though most of the general population is Caucasian-American, minorities still have more opportunities for same- than cross-race friendships. Therefore, ethnicity alone cannot be relied on to indicate opportunity for cross-race friendship. Minorities' higher proportion of cross-race friendships could be a result of simply having more opportunities for cross-race friendships, or there could be other factors that influence greater interracial friendliness among ethnic minorities. In addition, there are caveats to the opportunity hypothesis. In order for environments with high proportions of cross-race others to facilitate interracial friendships, there must not be an ample population of potential same-race friends. However, the schools can implement learning techniques that encourage interracial friendliness between students. One such learning technique is the use of cooperative learning teams CLTs , which are randomly constructed teams of students rewarded for collective, not individual, performance.CLTs were developed as an alternative to traditional teaching methods that tend to stress individual achievement and to group students by ability. When developing a CLT teaching structure, students are divided into groups somewhat randomly, without segregating by grade, demographic characteristics, or "ability. Usually, students stay on the same teams for about three years, so they are able to develop long-term friendships with their teammates. CLTs necessitate that team members interact as equals, which is probably one of the most important contributions of CLTs to interracial friendliness. Studies interested in the effectiveness of CLTs among school children show increases in both the quantity and quality of students' interracial friendships. Theoretical reasoning for why CLTs are effective in fostering cross-race friendships is that students develop a team culture, and the collective team identity overrides the ethnic identity of individual team members. In sum, small, diverse classrooms with CLT learning structures are the ideal school environment for fostering cross-race friendships. Joyner, K. School racial composition and adolescent racial homophily. Social Science Quarterly, 81, Joyner and Kao were interested in how school composition affects high school students' interracial friendliness. The graph below displays the approximate percentage of cross-race friendships blue bars and the approximate percentage of students of other races red bars by ethnicity. The percentage of students of other races can be used as a measure of opportunity to have interracial friendships. When opportunity for interracial friendships was controlled, Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans were more likely than Caucasians to have interracial friendships, but African-Americans and Asian-Americans were less likely than Caucasians to have an interracial friendship. In terms of school racial composition, students' likelihood of having a cross-race friendship increased as the proportion of other-race students increased. Slavin, R. Improving intergroup relations: Lessons learned from cooperative learning programs.
Americans See More Interracial Relationships in Advertising
Journal of Social Issues, 55 , Slavin and Cooper provide an extensive review of the effectiveness of cooperative learning programs on interracial friendships and attitudes. Cooperative learning programs vary in exact method, but ultimately are structured so that students are assigned to diverse teams that work together towards a common goal. An important component of the cooperative learning structure is the distribution of rewards according to each team's collective performance instead of the performance of individual students. The authors find cooperative learning programs increase the prevalence and quality of interracial friendships. They propose that cooperative learning programs foster a sense of a "team culture" that overrides racial boundaries. Hallinan, M. Opportunities and constraints: Black-White differences in the formation of interracial friendships. Child Development, 58, Hallinan and Teixeira examined structural and social factors that increased the likelihood of cross-race friendships among school children. They found that classrooms which exhibit a "status-leveling effect," such as de-emphasizing grades, standardized test scores, and curriculum, enhances cross-race friendship choices among Caucasian students. For African-American students, classrooms that emphasize student initiative and the intrinsic enjoyment of learning fostered more cross-race best-friend choices. As the percentage of African-American students in the classroom increased, more Caucasian students made cross-race best-friend choices. However, the larger the actual size of the class, the fewer the cross-race friends, presumably because students did not need to bother crossing racial barriers to find companions. In schools where students were tracked by ability, Caucasian students tended to choose interracial friends from within their "ability group. The effects of classroom racial composition on students' interracial friendliness. Social Psychology Quarterly, 48 ,
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A large survey of northern California 4 th to 7 th graders was analyzed to distinguish the validity of two theories of interracial sociability: 1 interracial friendliness is a function of number of opportunities to initiate a cross-race friendship, and 2 due to feeling socially threatened, minority students isolate themselves from the majority. This latter theory received no support, as levels of interracial friendliness were about equal for both minority and majority students. In general, as the proportion of one ethnic group increased, the other ethnic group displayed greater interracial friendliness. These results imply that cross-race friendship can be viewed as a function of number of opportunities for cross-race or same-race relationships. Therefore, more diverse classrooms foster greater opportunities for interracial friendships to be formed. However, the findings of Hallinan and Teixiera b qualify this finding with classroom size; diversity is most effective in fostering cross-race friendships in small classrooms. Damico, S. Effects of school organizational structure on interracial friendships in middle schools. Journal of Education Research, 74, The authors were interested in how different school structures affected students' interracial friendliness. In particular, they examined two types of school organizational structures: 1 traditional organization — students separated by grade, verbal and mathematical classes were tracked by ability, and great emphasis was placed on academic achievement, and 2 team organization — students were randomly assigned to teams, the teams were interdisciplinary and included students from different grades, and students stayed with their team for three years. For African-American students, school organization did not affect number of cross-race friendships.
1. Trends and patterns in intermarriage
However, Caucasian students in team organized schools had significantly more cross-race friendships than Caucasian students in traditionally organized schools. The authors concluded that team organization provides students with a cooperative, equal-status environment which foster interracial friendships, especially for Caucasian students who generally have less opportunity to develop interracial friendships. Back to Questions. In the same way that cooperative learning teams increase children's cross-race friendships, diverse business organizations that emphasize organizational membership and reward team achievement instead of individual achievement foster more member interaction and less salience of demographic categories. While the research into interracial friendships among adult coworkers has been sparse, the current literature seems to agree that creating a collective atmosphere that emphasizes a corporate culture promotes interaction between coworkers, therefore allowing for the benefits of a demographically diverse staff. Chatman, J. Being different yet feeling similar: The influence of demographic composition and organizational culture on work processes and outcomes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43, — The authors examined how demographic diversity and corporate culture interact to influence interaction among members, the salience of social categories, and group creativity, productivity, and conflict in simulated organizations. Corporate culture was manipulated to be either individualistic rewarding individual rather than team achievement or collectivistic rewarding team rather than individual achievement, emphasizing organizational membership , and demographic diversity was based on participants' age, sex, and race. Simulated organizations that were demographically diverse and emphasized organizational membership had more interaction between members and reported other member's demographic characteristics to be less salient than diverse and individualistically oriented organizations. There is hardly any literature on children's motives for initiating cross-race friendships. However, since similar situations foster interracial friendships for both children and adults cooperative teams emphasizing team culture and collective reward systems , predictions can be made about children's motivations for entering cross-race relationships drawing from the literature on adult's motivations for entering interracial relationships. Indeed, Clark and Ayers found that similarity played a primary role in children's cross-race friendships. The opportunity hypothesis provides some assumptions about children's motivations to enter cross-race relationships, as well; children's motivations for initiating cross-race relationships are a function of proportion of cross-race others in the environment. However, even though Hallinan and Teixiera b found that diverse classrooms fostered cross-race friendships, as long as there were a significant number of same-race peers in a child's environment, students were less likely to nominate a cross-race peer as a friend, regardless of opportunities for cross-race friendships. This is presumably because it is not necessary to make the extra effort to overcome racial boundaries if one has a suitable pool of same-race peers to choose as friends. These findings imply that it is not opportunity alone that motivates children to initiate cross-race friendships. In spite of the lack of motivation research, there have been many attempts to associate individual characteristics with interracial friendliness.
Since more social skills and multicultural sensitivity were merely correlated with interracial friendships, it is possible these factors are predecessors, not outcomes of interracial relationships. Most likely, it is a positive feedback loop: interacting with cross-race friends may promote social competence and multicultural sensitivity, which then promotes future interaction with cross-race peers. Overall, popularity, social skills, and multicultural sensitivity are individual characteristics that have been associated with children's cross-race friendship choices. In general, friendlier students defined by sheer number of other students indicated as either "best friend" or "friend" had more cross-race friendships. In addition, students were much more likely to have same-sex interracial friendships than opposite-sex interracial friendships. Interestingly, the more same-race popularity a child had indicated by number of same-race peers that elected the child as a friend or best friend , the fewer cross-race friendships the child reported. The authors conclude that overall friendliness increases the likelihood of interracial friendliness, and children who were popular with their same-race peers were just generally more popular with all students, regardless of the popular child's individual friendship choices. There are a number of theories as to why individuals choose to get involved in interracial romantic relationships. Some assume attraction to individuals of other races indicates psychological maladjustment and self-loathing Davidson, ; Pope, Overall, individual characteristics that predict interracial dating are strongly related to more liberal ideologies and integrated environments, not maladjustment. Also, motivations for getting involved in a romantic relationship are very similar to motivations for initiating same-race romantic relationships. Drawing from data collected by a nationally representative telephone survey of adults, Yancey identified some individual characteristics that predicted interracial dating among different ethnic groups.
Study finds bias, disgust toward mixed-race couples
For all groups, not being Catholic and either living in an integrated neighborhood or attending an integrated high school predicted interracial dating. One possible reason for the negative relationship between Catholicism and interracial dating is that Catholicism encourages its followers to marry other Catholics, and there are fewer ethnic minority Catholics than in other religious sects ARDA, While the association with Catholicism could be explained by the Catholic Church's politically conservative ideology, the effect of liberal ideologies was only significant for Caucasians, which contrasted with the positive association between being a conservative protestant and interracial dating among Asian Americans. Overall, non-Catholics and individuals who grew up in integrated neighborhoods and schools are more likely to date interracially. Motivations for entering interracial relationships have been studied through the analysis of personal ads and through retrospective self-reports of individuals in interracial marriages. Some theorists have proposed that people seek interracial relationships because they feel they have qualities that are more attractive to other ethnicities or that they desire characteristics that are associated with other races. All-in-all, it appears to be the personality of a potential mate, not the race, that most influences an individual's motivation to enter into a romantic relationship. Yancey, G. Who interracially dates: An examination of the characteristics of those who have interracially dated. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 33 , Yancey analyzed data from a national telephone survey of English and Spanish speaking U. He identified factors that influence whether an individual interracially dates by each ethnicity. The table below displays characteristics that predicted interracial dating by ethnicity. Overall, Caucasians have the greatest number of qualifications affecting whether they will date interracially. For both Caucasian- and Hispanic-Americans, being well-educated was positively associated with interracial dating, and a higher income predicted cross-race dating among Asian-Americans. In addition, young Caucasian- and African-Americans were more likely to have dated interracially than older Caucasian- and African-Americans. Finally, Caucasian-, African-, and Hispanic-American males were more likely to interracially date than females, but there was no significant difference in likelihood of interracial dating between Asian-American males and females. For all ethnicities, interracial dating was predicted by not being Catholic and being immersed in an integrated environment.
Interracial dating: Evidence from personal advertisements. Journal of Family Issues, 19, Yancey and Yancey analyzed personal ads from a variety of single's magazines to examine what qualities are sought and offered termed "relational capital" by individuals who are open to interracial dating. When controlling for age and sex, there were no significant differences between African-Americans or Caucasians in either qualities desired or qualities offered. In addition, when controlling for age and sex, there were no significant differences in relational capital defined as the characteristics one can offer in a relationship between individuals who are or are not open to interracial dating. The authors conclude that neither the desire for out-group qualities nor the possession of attributes supposedly more attractive to other groups serve as bases for whether or not people will choose to date interracially. Lewis Jr. Journal of Black Studies, 28 , The authors collected survey data from a nationwide sample of adults in interracial marriages. They compared their results to an annual national survey collected on a random sample of adults. Compared to intraracial marriages, individuals in interracial marriages had achieved slightly higher levels of education, yet had lower family income. In addition, individuals in cross-race marriages tended to have married at an older age and have fewer children than individuals in same-race marriages. Nonracial factors played a much larger role in spouse selection for the interracially married sample than racial factors.
Interracial relationships don’t always make people less racist
Overall, racial factors played a nominal role in choosing a spouse. Out of the racial factors, the most influential characteristics were the sexual attraction of someone from another race However, out of individuals who had not dated outside their race prior to marrying a cross-race spouse, a significantly smaller percentage reported sexual attractiveness of other races and ease of talking to people of other races as very important or important in their spouse selection process. Perry, B. Defending the color line: Racially and ethnically motivated hate crimes. American Behavioral Scientist, 46, Perry reviews literature, statistics, and the popular media to examine motivations for race-based hate crimes. Perry reports that non-Caucasians are at the greatest risk for hate crime victimization when they engage in interracial romantic relationships. Cross-race romantic relationships are a visible violation of anti-miscegenation norms. In particular, African-American male-Caucasian female pairings appear to be the least socially acceptable. Drawing from interviews with American high school students, Perry explains that interracial relationships threaten Caucasian males' access to Caucasian women. Attempts to regulate interracial relationships by Caucasian males also imply that Caucasian women are viewed as the property of Caucasian males. All-in-all, increased risk of hate crime victimization for non-Caucasians in interracial relationships presents a barrier to the formation or maintenance of cross-race relationships, because the risk might scare individuals away from interracial relationships. Foeman, A. From miscegenation to multiculturalism: Perceptions and stages of interracial relationship development. Journal of Black Studies, 29, Foeman and Nance review literature on interracial marriage to construct a model of the development of interracial romantic relationships. They contend that maintenance of cross-race relationships involves the successful management of four stages: 1 racial awareness — discovering the perspectives of one's partner's race, and realizing the role race plays in one's life, 2 coping with social definitions of race — learning strategies for dealing with a racially biased reactions from society, 3 identity emergence — the couple begins to view themselves as having a unique, merged identity, and 4 maintenance — incorporating new perspectives and strategies into one's life. The authors conclude that the successful navigation of these stages yields a happy, self-sustaining cross-race relationship with the same intimacy and adjustment as same-race relationships. Relationship Characteristics.
Research on Cross-Race Relationships: An Annotated Bibliography
The literature on characteristics of children's cross-race friendships has revealed that interracial friendships appear to be less stable and less intimate than same-race friendships. However, there are many caveats to these findings. In addition, although cross-race friendships were found to be less intimate, they were still equally characterized by helping behaviors, emotional security, and positive affections. Therefore, while there seem to be more barriers towards cross-race friendships in terms of general relationships stability and intimacy, once those barriers are crossed, interracial friendships provide equal, positive environments that foster less racial bias as well as other benefits, discussed later Click here to go to the Benefits section. Aboud, F. Cross-race peer relations and friendship quality. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, The authors interviewed elementary school children to examine characteristics of cross-race friendship. Cross-race friendships were less likely in the older students than the younger, with Caucasian boys being the least likely to have cross-race friends. Fewer interracial friendships were stable than same-race friendships, and cross-race friends were less likely to be added over the course of the school year.
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