Why Racial Intermarriage? Race, Class, and Gender Rationales Articulated by Latinos and their Spouses

• In Event: 4150 - Interracial Unions: Preferences, Prejudices, and Privileges

Abstract

What are the motivations for interracial marriage, from the perspective of both partners? Focusing on couples that contain one person who identifies as Latino/a, this papers explores reasons why people outmarry. Using in-depth interviews drawn from a larger project on family formation, this paper teases apart the influence of “preferences” (that are socially constructed and based on prior experience) as well as “supply” or demographics. Race, gender, and class concerns are prominent drivers of out-marriage. A chief finding is that Latina women who suffered domineering Latino fathers assumed that all Latino men shared this trait and therefore rejected all Latino men. Yet a divide emerges: while Latinas with oppressive fathers favored men who “looked” different than their fathers, some married non-Hispanic whites while others married racial minorities because they required a partner to share their perspective on racial marginality. Class is also operative in that some Latina women perceived white men as desirable on both racial and class grounds. From intermarried whites’ perspective, a discourse of multiculturalism facilitated intermarriage and operated alongside imagery of Latina women as appealing. Turning to the less-studied pairing of Latinos and non-Latino minorities (Asian Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans), rationales for these unions center on both men and women’s desire for a partner who has experienced similar racial marginality. A minority-minority connection—where being a racial minority transcends identification with any particular racial category—facilitates nonwhite racial intermarriage. In these dual minority unions, comparing racialized experiences and racial group histories with a different nonwhite group is both a source of bonding as well as adds conviction to both partners’ worldview of the salience of race and racial hierarchy in the U.S.

Author

• Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, University of Oregon