ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I argue that both interracial and intraracial sex (or equivalently, “cross-race” and “same-race”) are equally fraught: that is, both species of sexual practice may be sinister or enlightened, oppressive, or resistant. By extension, the same can be said of marriage, the social institution that confers moral legitimacy and legal protections upon sex (and its products, e.g., offspring) between spouses. Both sex and marriage are deeply racialized—that is to say, their social significance shifts dramatically according to the racial identities of the parties involved. Cross-race sex/marriage has always been tacitly condoned because it has historically functioned to perpetuate conditions of extreme domination and oppression; yet insofar as racist ideologies required that such cross-race relationships be illegal, taboo, or highly stigmatized, increasing social acceptance represents a genuine antiracist triumph. Same-race sex/marriage has been sanctioned as natural, normative, and necessary for maintaining an ideal of racial purity, with devastatingly violent consequences; however, it has also been a form of resistance among racially oppressed groups. Once adequate attention is paid to its racialized dimensions, I claim, sex itself—via the institution of marriage—is starkly exposed as being deeply intertwined with matters of property as well as the family/nation.
