ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of sexuality in the regulation of interracialized couples in present-day Europe. Using Stoler's concept of ‘duress,’ which draws attention to the colonial histories of the present, it argues that in European states and societies, as well as in their former colonies, some such couples continue to be considered ‘improper.’ Drawing from my multi-sited ethnography of black-white couples' everyday experiences of racism in Europe, the chapter highlights the role of intersecting structures of oppression in shaping the uneven distribution of this stereotype based (mainly) on partners' race, gender and sexuality. In so doing, it offers multiple contributions to scholarship on ‘mixed’ couples in twenty-first century Europe, specifically by moving past the prevalent methodological nationalism, methodological presentism, and default heteronormative framework. Overall, the chapter argues that the ‘improper couple’ stereotype participates in a racialized and gendered economy of ‘suspicious’ cross-border intimacies, which contributes to upholding and reproducing Europe's exclusionary migration regime.
