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10.1177/0891243205276755GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN”
LOOKING BEHIND THE STEREOTYPES
OF THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN”
An Exploration of Black Women’s Responses
to Interracial Relationships
ERICA CHITO CHILDS
Hunter College
In academic research on interracial relationships, as well as popular discourses such as film andtelevi-
sion, Black women are often characterized as angry and opposed to interracial relationships. Yet the
voices of Black women have been largely neglected. Drawing from focus group interviews with Black
college women and in-depth interviews with Black women who are married interracially, the author
explores Black women’s views on Black-white heterosexual relationships. Black women’s oppositionto
interracial dating is not simply rooted in jealousy and anger toward white women but is based on white
racism, Black internalization of racism, and what interracial relationships represent to Black women
and signify about Black women’s worth. The impact of racism and sexism are clear, with Black women
devalued by white standards of beauty and faced with a shortage of available Black men and a lack of
“substantive opportunities” to date interracially.
Keywords: interracial marriage; racism; heterosexual relationships
According to the 2000 Census, interracial marriages account for only 1.9 percent
of all marriages. The overwhelming majority of these marriages are white-Asian
couplings (1.2 percent), while marriages between Blacks and whites still remain
least common (0.06 percent). As Rockquemore and Brunsma (2001, ix) argued,
“Blacks and whites continue to be the two groups with the greatest social distance,
the most spatial separation, and the strongest taboos against interracial marriage.”
Previous research has also documented that white-Black interracial couples are
viewed more negatively than other racial combinations (Davis 1991; Feagin 2000;
Ferber 1998; Frankenberg 1993; Rosenblatt, Karis, and Powell 1995).
544
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I would like to thank Christine L. Williams, the anonymous reviewers, and Becky
Thompson for their insightful comments on earlier drafts.
REPRINT REQUESTS: Erica Chito Childs, Eastern Connecticut State University, Department of Soci-
ology, Willimantic, CT 06226.
GENDER & SOCIETY, Vol. 19 No. 4, August 2005 544-561
DOI: 10.1177/0891243205276755
© 2005 Sociologists for Women in Society
While the issue of interracial heterosexual relationships between Blacks and
whites has been explored from many viewpoints, the voices of African American
women have been largely neglected. Research has documented that Black women
represent the strongest opposition toward interracial dating and marriage, based
on qualitative research with Black men–white women interracial couples (McNamara,
Tempenis, and Walton 1999; Rosenblatt, Karis, and Powell 1995; Spickard 1989)
and quantitative survey data of white and Black attitudes toward interracial dating
(Davis and Smith 1991; See 1989; Todd et al. 1992). However, an in-depth explora-
tion of African American women’s perspectives on heterosexual interracial rela-
tionships (both those who are interracially married and those who are not) will
undoubtedly provide a better understanding of this phenomenon. Therefore, in this
article, I will look specifically at the unique ways that African American women
respond to Black-white heterosexual relationships and what their responses tell us
about racial and gender dynamics in intimate relationships.
Since interracial sexuality (or even the possibility of its occurring) has played a
central role in the treatment of Blacks in society, there is a painful and complicated
history attached to Black-white unions in Black communities. For example, at the
same time slavery was being legally institutionalized in Virginia in the mid to late
1600s, interracial unions were prohibited by law. While white women and Black
men were severely punished for engaging in sexual relations, the much more com-
mon sexual exploitation of Black women by white men was routine and rarely pun-
ished (Davis 1981; Giddings 1984; Takaki 1993). The racial hierarchy and, more
specifically, the white male power structure were not threatened by a Black
woman’s giving birth to a child by a white man. It has even been argued that this was
economically beneficial because it served to increase the slave labor force (Collins
2004; Davis 1981; Davis 1991; Giddings 1984). In contrast, a white woman who
gave birth to a child from a Black man would pollute the purity of the white race,
thereby eroding racial boundaries and, most important, the power of white men.
Interracial relationships and marriage remain a politicized social issue in Black
communities. The majority of Black-white relationships involve a Black man
and white woman: For example, in 1992, there were 246,000 Black-white mar-
riages, and 163,000 of these were between Black men and white women (http://
www.census.gov/population/socdemo/ race/interractab1.txt). As Collins pointed
out, “Black women remain called upon to accept and love the mixed-race children
born to their brothers, friends and relatives . . . who at the same time often represent
tangible reminders of their own rejection” (2000, 165). To Black women, interra-
cial relationships between Black men and white women and their children repre-
sent rejection because these relationships, along with incarceration, drug abuse,
and homicide, are viewed as the source of the shortage of marriable Black men
(Collins 2004; Dickson 1993). This shortage of “good” Black men and the low
rates of interracial marriage for Black women are important demographic realities
to consider as we look at the views of Black women on interracial relationships.
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 545
LITERATURE REVIEW
Traditionally, works in the social sciences on interracial relationshipshave
focused on the couple, seeking to explain how or why they came together, to evalu-
ate the characteristics of the couples by looking at their demographic similarities
and differences, or to compare these unions to same-race unions (Davis 1941;
Gaines et al. 1999; Heaton and Jacobson 2000; Kalmijin 1998; Lewis, Yancey, and
Bletzer 1997; Monahan 1970; Tucker and Mitchell-Kernan 1990; Yancey 2002).
There are also a number of in-depth qualitative studies of interracial couples, which
focus on the views of the couples, their experiences, and their relationships with
family and community, documenting the difficulties these couples face from others
and the ways they maintain a relationship despite these difficulties (McNamara,
Tempenis, and Walton 1999; Root 2001; Rosenblatt, Karis, and Powell 1995).
Some studies do move beyond looking simply at the couples to explore societal
responses and the larger implications of interracial relationships. For example,
Dalmage (2000) interviewed interracial couples and multiracial individuals about
the ways in which their identities, politics, and communities both shape and are
shaped by the color line, within a discussion of other issues such as census
categories, transracial adoption, and housing segregation. Kennedy (2003), Moran
(2001), and Romano (2003) documented the legal, political, and social barriers to
interracial marriage, exploring how racial intimacy has shaped and in turn has been
affected by laws and customs in the United States. Chito Childs (2005) looked at the
experiences of interracial couples, the societal responses of white and Black fami-
lies and communities, and popular culture depictions to argue that opposition still
exists to interracial couples, and these relationships can be used to understand the
current state of race relations. While these studies are all important for their docu-
mentation of the experiences of interracial couples and general societal responses,
none look specifically and in depth at Black women’s views and experiences with
interracial relationships.
When Black women are discussed in these studies of interracial couples, they
are often depicted as angry and opposed to interracial relationships. Quantitative
survey research on attitudes toward interracial dating and marriage has found that
Black women have the least favorable attitudes (Davis and Smith 1991; See 1989;
Todd et al. 1992). Qualitative studies of interracial couples also often emphasize the
image of the “angry Black woman” (McNamara, Tempenis, and Walton 1999;
Rosenblatt, Karis, and Powell 1995), based primarily on the narratives of Black
men–white women couples. For example, in Rosenblatt, Karis, and Powell’s study,
Christine, a white woman involved with a Black man, described her resentment at
the way Black women she encounters routinely treat her: “The other thing that’s
happened recently for me that I think he (her Black partner) thinks is funny,butI’ve
gotten kind of angry about Black women and how rejecting they are of us and how
hostile many of them are” (1995, 153). Often, the opposition of Black women is
characterized as personal, and there is little acknowledgment or concern for the
larger issues that may be the root of Black women’s perceived anger and hostility.
546 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005
What is most problematic is that the voices of Black women are rarely included in
the discussion.
Studies that have explored the issue of interracial unions and gender have
focused on the experiences and views of white women. Jones (1990), Lazarre
(1996), and Reddy (1994) have all written from a personal perspective about their
lives as white women married to Black men raising biracial Black children,
describing their experiences using feminist theory and literary studies. Franken-
berg (1993) also explored white women’s views on and experiences with interracial
relationships as one of the ways that white women socially construct their racial
identities. She examined how white women’s views on race are influenced by their
involvement in intimate interracial relationships and the different discursive strate-
gies of race cognizance or color-power evasiveness that they employ.
While very little qualitative research has been conducted to explore the particu-
lar experiences and views of Black women on interracialdating and marriage, there
are important exceptions to this invisibility. Collins (2004, 263) addressed how
“African American women’s race and gender classification disadvantages them,”
with a shortage of marriable Black men and limited “substantive opportunities” to
date interracially. She critiques researchers such as Root (2001), who celebrate
interracial relationships as revolutionary, leaving “Black women who roll their
eyes at interracial couples not seen as sympathetic figures—they become recast as
familiar stereotypical Black bitches who stand in the way of progress” (Collins
2004, 263). bell hooks (1981, 1996, 2001) wrote of the difficulties Black women
face in finding love in a racist, patriarchal society and offered a feminist critique of
Black-white relationships. Other scholars draw on personal experiences, for exam-
ple, Williams (1995), who discussed her family history and the legacy of miscege-
nation through an account of her grandmother who was a slave and bore children by
her white slave master. Black women’s views on interracial lesbian relationships
have been addressed by Lorde (1984), who described her own experiences as part
of an interracial lesbian couple raising a son, and by other Black feminist scholars
such as Jordan (1992), Pellegrini (1997), and Smith (1998), who looked at Black
women’s experiences and the intersection of not only race and gender but also
sexuality.
Related research on the issue of Black women, appearance, and the marriage
market is also important to consider. As Toni Morrison (1972) wrote in The Bluest
Eye, there are “devastating effect(s) of pervasive European ideals of beauty on the
self image of Black women.” Skin color stratification exists in the Black commu-
nity as well as the larger society, where light-skinned Blacks are evaluated as more
attractive and more successful in terms of education, income, and occupation (Hall
1992; Hughes and Hertel 1990; Keith and Herring 1991; Neal and Wilson 1989;
Russell, Wilson and Hall 1993). This undoubtedly plays a role in the views of Black
women toward interracial dating since the discrimination based on skin color may
be associated with the decision to date interracially as a privileging of lighter skin—
the lightest skin of all, white women (Russell, Wilson, and Hall 1993).
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 547
Mass media culture also reproduces certain images of Black women, which
often include being opposed to interracial relationships. In popular movies such as
The Brothers (Gary Hardwick 2001), Jungle Fever (Spike Lee 1991), Save the Last
Dance (Thomas Carter 2001), and Waiting to Exhale (Forrest Whitaker 1995),
Black women’s anger and opposition toward interracial relationships between
Black men and white women are depicted. For example, much of Spike Lee’s film
Jungle Fever revolves around an interracial affair between a married Black man and
his white secretary. Significant attention is paid to the responses of the Black
women involved, particularly the impact of the interracial affair on his wife Drew.
In one scene, Drew and her friends discuss the “low class white trash white women
who throw themselves at African American men.” The women conclude that “if it
wasn’t for the 29,000 white bitches . . . who give up the pussy and are stealing all the
Black men,” they would have men to date and marry.
Yet how do the voices of African American women compare to these popular
images? In what follows, I explore the meanings attached to interracial unions
among Black women, using critical analysis to understand the underlying mean-
ings of the views of Black women on interracial dating and marriage. Although the
women’s narratives are not generalizable, there are common threads that run
through the varied women’s views and add to our understanding of the meanings of
interracial relationships for Black women.
METHOD
This study draws on two data sources: focus group interviews with selected
Black student organizations on three college campuses and separate in-depth inter-
views with Black women married to white men. The interviews were conducted
between 1999 and 2001 in the Northeast region of the country. The data were origi-
nally collected for a larger study of societal responses of white and Black families
and communities to interracial couples (Chito Childs 2005). For this article, I am
conducting a separate analysis of the Black women’s responses. While the main
focus is on the voices of the Black college women on Black-white relationships, the
data from in-depth interviews with Black women who are involved interracially
will also be used to illustrate the complexities of Black women’s views and further
our understanding of the college women’s views.
The focus group interviews with Black college women are part of a larger group
interview project wherein white and Black college student organizations were
interviewed separately about their views on interracial dating. One of the reasons
that colleges were chosen as community sites for the focus group research is that
the college is often heralded as a place where racial barriers can be broken down
and opportunities for interracial interaction and relationships are possible. I con-
ducted the nonrandom focus groups with members of Black/African American stu-
dent organizations at three universities in the Northeast region of the country. The
three separate focus groups were conducted at weekly meetings of the
548 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005
organizations with 10 women at an Ivy League university, 12 women at a private
Jesuit university, and 7 women at a public state university. Each focus group fol-
lowed a semistructured list of questions where the respondents were encouraged to
discuss their views for as long as necessary. The college women ranged in age from
18 to 23 and were all full-time college students. Although some women described
growing up in lower-income neighborhoods, the sample was overwhelmingly mid-
dle class. When discussing the data, I will not differentiate between the different
colleges, since the students’ responses were remarkably similar.
I also include data from separate in-depth interviews I conducted with four
Black women who were married to white men. These interviews help to illustrate
the multifaceted and complicated relationship that exists between Black women
and the issue of interracial relationships. This nonrandom sample was identified
through contacts, through referrals, and even by approaching the women in public.
(I also interviewed nine Black men–white women couples, but since the focus
here is on Black women, the results of those interviews will not be discussed.) The
Black women I interviewed were aged 24, 32, 45, and 47. They were all college
educated, with one woman having completed postdoctoral work. The interviews
were semistructured and lasted between two and three hours. Since this was part
of a larger project that looked at the experiences of Black-white couples, the white
partners were present during the interviews, which may have influenced what the
women said and how they characterized their views. Each interview was tape-
recorded and transcribed, with relevant themes and issues identified in the
narratives.
The interview structure was different for the Black women who were in an inter-
racial relationship and the Black women in college communities, yet most of the
issues that I addressed were the same. I asked all respondents to discuss their expe-
riences with and views of Black-white relationships. Also, I encouraged them to
discuss the views of Black women within their families and communities on inter-
racial dating and marriage. In the focus group interviews, the college women’s dis-
cussions and responses focused primarily on their views of Black men who date
and marry interracially, not other Black women who are interracially involved.
With the Black women who are intermarried,I also askedquestions about their own
experiences being involved interracially and how they negotiate their identities
within their families and communities. I reviewed and analyzed the women’s
responses, looking for relevant data, logical relationships/contradictions, and
emergent themes that will be discussed in the next section.
There are a number of limitations to this study. Since it is based on small,
nonrandom samples, it is not generalizable, yet it does still allow us to explore
important issues related to Black women and interracial relationships. In the focus
group interviews, given the resistance to Black-white relationships, Black women
who may have dated interracially or wanted to may have been hesitant to express
this view in the group context. Also, in the interviews with the Black women who
were interracially involved, the presence of their white partners may have caused
them to leave out certain views or negative experiences that the white partners were
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 549
not aware of. My own racial/ethnic identityas a white Portuguese woman may also
have limited or otherwise affected how the women responded. I addressed this with
the women, who often initiated the conversation by asking me why and how I
became interested in this topic. I answered by discussing how previous research on
interracial relationships tended to focus on the couples, or the views of whites, vir-
tually ignoring the views of African Americans. I also described my personal con-
nection to the issue, in that my daughter and son are African American/Portuguese.
While this could obviously influence what the women said, the women talked
openly and at great length about their views. Many of the college women stated that
they “enjoyed” the opportunity to “speak their minds” about interracial dating since
it is something that they often discussed among each other.
FINDINGS: COLLEGE WOMEN IN FOCUS GROUPS
Among the women in the college groups—none of whom acknowledged being
involved interracially—there was a definitive consensus that interracial relation-
ships were problematic. The following statements illustrate this opposition:
Blacks just like to see other Blacks, especially Black men who are successful, to stay
Black, be with a Black woman. ...It’sjust about respecting and applauding those who
don’t go interracial.
Definitely a problem in the Black community because it takes away from us, and
we’re already struggling to succeed as a people.
Blacks have a problem with it. . . . [I] would be uncomfortable knowing someone who
dated a white person because whites just don’t understand Blacks.
While the opposition was sometimes voiced in individual terms, much of the
college women’s discussion revolved around the opposition of their families and
communities. The following statements reflect the common responses given by the
college women:
My family raised me to [be] very proud of who I am, a Black woman, and they
instilled in me the belief that I would never want to be with anyone but a strong Black
man.
My mom would have a problem with it; she just doesn’t trust white people.
These women stated that opposition to interracial relationships exists at least on
some level in Black communities, and in their own families, which shaped their
views.
Based on the narratives of the college women, white racism plays a central role
in Black opposition to interracial relationships. The women discussed how racism
and discrimination permeate all of society, which can make the idea of choosing to
interact intimately with whites a problem. One college woman argued that “no
550 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005
white person can understand; you just want to be with someone who knows what
prejudice feels like without having to explain how it feels.” Another woman asked,
“If whites still think you are inferior, why would I or any Black person want to be
with one?”
The college women challenged the motives of Black individuals who choose to
date interracially. They maintained that interracial relationships are a sign that one
is removed from African American communities. Blacks who intermarry are
accused of having a negative self-image and perceiving whites as superior, which is
understood as a self-internalization of white racism. The college women describe
Blacks who are involved interracially as “less Black”:
Blacks need to come together; those who do date interracially are traitors.
Black men who are with white women are usually also submerged in white culture
and have white friends.
The perception of sellout for Blacks that date interracially comes from Black guys
who act white do tend to date white girls.
The women equate being involved interracially with betraying one’s family and
community. Interracial marriage is described as an “escape into white society.” The
college women argued that only African Americans “who are removed from their
race” or who are “weak” engage in interracial relationships. They gave examples of
“sellouts,” such as Black celebrities Bryant Gumbel (who left his Black wife for a
white woman) and Wesley Snipes and Dennis Rodman (who have, according to
these women, publicly stated they date only white women). As these comments
illustrate, the college women’s discussions focused almost exclusively on Black
men who engage in interracial relationships. For single young women, a Black man’s
choice to be with a white woman is seen as a specific betrayal of Black women
because the decision to date interracially does not mean just choosing white women
but also rejecting Black women.
While the Black college women’s discussions of the issue of interracial relation-
ships focused mostly on Black men with white women, they also all stated thatit
was unlikely that they would ever date interracially, as represented in the following
comments.
I just couldn’t see a white person as part of my life, like that, my family.
I don’t know how or why someone could ever get over the racism of whites to datea
white person.
Still, these college women expressed more accepting views of other Black women’s
dating white men. The following statements illustrate this:
A Black woman with a white man can go further, and there’s not the same idea that
she’s going to desert the African American community.
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 551
You see so many Black guys running around with white girls that it’s almost like, See,
this is what you get.
When I see a Black girl with a white guy, I think it must be love; he must be doing
something right for her to cross over like that, or maybe he has money.
The college women described how Black women with white men is justifiable
given the number of Black men who date interracially and also because it is
assumed that the Black woman will stay committed and involved in Black commu-
nities unlike the Black man, who is viewed as wasting his success on this white
woman and in white communities. This issue of commitment is important, for it
seems that interracial couples who maintain an interest in and commitment to Afri-
can American culture may be viewed more positively, whether it is a Black manora
Black woman. For example, one young woman discussed “this street where there
were lots of interracial families, and they all did this weekly African dancing.” She
described the white partners as “more Africanized than a lot of Black people I know
and I did think that was kind of cool.”
Despite acknowledging acceptance of particular interracial relationships, all
three groups of college women expressed concern with the “phenomenon” of Black
men–white women couples and the racialized and gendered motives and stereo-
types that existed:
It’s just sex, it’s curiosity or just experimenting, or it’s for what you can get, like Black
guys want her to do this and that and she does, or it’s about money; it’s usually
something.
It’s even worse than not being genuine; it’s dating outside your race for a purpose. . . .
Black guys want their laundry done, homework done, food cooked, guys tell Black
girls off because they won’t do their shit.
It’s so bad that I’ve heard seniors tell freshmen when they say they can’t do their
homework, “Haven’t you found yourself a white girl yet?”
Relationships between Black men and white women are perceived to be based on
what the other can get from the relationship, whether it is sex, status, money, or ser-
vices such as laundry and homework. Black men were described as choosing white
women over Black women because white women are willing to cater to them, while
Black women are not.
The Black college women further discussed the divergent images of “easy”
white women and “difficult” Black women that existed among Black men. One
woman described how “there’s this perception of Black women as more confronta-
tional, too much trouble, which is coupled with the idea that white girls are easy,
easy to control; that’s the dynamic you have operating there.” Another woman
added that the Black guys she knows say they are “just sleeping with the white girl,
and prefer white women because they are more subservient, don’t ask where are
you going or what are you doing; you don’t haveto call them your girlfriend; white
girls are just easier to have sex with.” Other women described how “Black guys feel
552 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005
that white girls are easier, sexually loose, and on the flip side that Black women are
too aggressive, too controlling, have an attitude, not confident, but nasty, gold dig-
ger.” This imagery is much different from the historical construction of the white
woman as the virgin and the Black woman as the whore, yet the same purpose is
served. Within the women’s discussions, the white women are perceived as sexu-
ally loose and easy, yet this only enhances their desirability. The idea of racial dif-
ference remains with white women’s and Black women’s being characterized in
complete opposition to one another—white women are viewed as the standard of
femininity in terms of physical appearance but also personal characteristics such as
submissiveness.
The college women also described the phenomenon of white women who pur-
sue Black men:
White women just have this idea of it’s so great to be with a Black guy because he’s a
big Black stud. ...Youcantell the white girl that he’s a dog and she still wants him
probably even more.
Black men are in fashion; call it the resurgence of the Black male. It’s like interracial
dating is a fashion statement, a token especially when it is an African American
athlete.
In this discussion, the college women described how “Black men can be dark
skinned and they are still valued” yet “light skin for women is valued, which makes
Black women devalued.” This reflects the gender differences in standards of beauty
where the essence of what it means to be feminine is equated with white: “Under
these feminine norms African American women can never be as beautiful as white
women because they never become white” (Collins 2004, 194). While very few of
the Black college women acknowledged that they would date a white man, they dis-
cussed how the majority of white men do not find Black women attractive or
acceptable as mates. The college women did maintain that “Black women are just
more attracted to Black men,” but they also stated that Black women do not date
interracially because “white guys are hesitant to approach them” or “white guys
just aren’t as aggressive as white women, that’s why they don’t get to know Black
women, but you have white women falling all over Black guys.” The college
women argued that they did not think most white men found African American
women attractive because of their body types, offering explanations such as “white
guys are used to white girls who don’t have a butt.”
These images of interracial unions, which were discussed among the college
women, are inextricably tied to the intersections of race and gender as well as the
literature discussed on Black women, attractiveness, and the marriage market. A
woman’s perceived attractiveness is central to being chosen in the marriage market,
and Black women start with a deficit because attractiveness is based on white Euro-
pean standards of beauty. “The broader structural factors effecting African Ameri-
can women have created a context in which interpersonal interactions are shaped by
competition . . . not unlike others who fight over limited resources” (Rockquemore
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 553
2002, 493). Faced with realistic concerns about finding a partner, Black women are
threatened by the perceived trend of white women who pursue Black men and the
Black men who choose white women.
According to the college women, Black men’s choices to date interracially are
devastating to them personally as women looking for a partner but also to Black
women collectively as a group. Consider the following quotes:
As a Black woman, it is difficult enough to have to deal with whites who [act] as if
[Black] is inferior, but it is even harder to have your own men act like white is better
and systematically choose white women over you; it is hard not to get angry because it
feels as if no one values your worth as a woman.
You grow up with these men all your life, but then you’re not good enough to be a
wife. . . . It’s disrespectful and degrading.
One woman offered advice to the other women and described in detail how she
deals with these issues. She stated that she used “to let it hurt her” but now she advo-
cates that Black women should “turn that anger on themselves, and think that guy is
missing out on me.” She continued, “Don’t show you are mad, don’t settle for
someone who doesn’t treat you like white girls are treated; find a man, stop hating,
and find a man who treats you well,” adding that “when a white girl says, ‘I gotmea
Black man,’you can say, ‘Good’ because you got you the same.”
These emotional statements of the college women in the focus groups paint a
picture of white women who are submissive and do anything and everything for
Black men, yet Black men are also viewed as treating white women better. The col-
lege women’s opposition is largely based on the loss of potential partners and the
perceived reasons that Black men choose to date interracially. When Black men
choose white women, it is understood as valuing white women and therefore treat-
ing them better. At the same time, the college women see these choices to date white
women as based on the different images of white women as more feminine—sub-
missive and catering to a man’s every whim—and Black women as further from the
ideal (read white) because they are more outspoken and less submissive. Bebe
Moore Campbell expressed the sentiments on how she and some friends felt when
they saw a prominent Black actor come into a restaurant with a white woman as a
date: “For many African-American women, the thought of African American men,
particularly those who are successful, dating or marrying white women is like
being passed over at the prom by the boy we consider our steady date, causing us
pain, rage and an overwhelming sense of betrayal and personal rejection. . ..For
sisters, the message that we don’t measure up is the nightmare side of integration”
(Russell and Wilson 1996). Interracial relationships, especially those between
Black men and white women, can still have deleterious effects on Black women.
The college women raised legitimate concerns about their future and questioned
whether there will be a Black man to raise a family with because of the shortage of
Black men, which is attributed, at least partly, to large numbers of Black men’s
choosing white women. Furthermore, the women reference the unlikelihood of
554 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005
white men as partners based on white racism, Eurocentric standards of beauty, and
lack of opportunity or desire to interact.
FINDINGS: INTERVIEWS WITH
WOMEN IN INTERRACIAL MARRIAGES
Given that none of the college women acknowledged dating interracially, itis
also important to consider the voices of Black women who are interracially
involved. The four Black women interviewed who were married to white men—
Aisha, Sharon, Nancy, and Gwen—acknowledged and discussed the existence of a
collective opposition toward interracial relationships among Blacks, similar to the
perceptions of the college women. These interracially married women cited white
racism, concerns about the motives of the white partner, and the depth of the rela-
tionships as reasons why their families, friends, and others had concerns about their
relationships. For example, Sharon, a 47-year-old managerial professional dis-
cussed how her brother and sisters would never be involved interracially and had
mixed feelings about her marrying Kevin, a white man. “My younger sister accepts
the relationship but not interracial in general. . . . She just doesn’t think white and
Black should be together; she always says, ‘It is hard for me to relate to someone of
a race that has killed, belittled, and continues to come into the Black community to
break it up, I couldn’t do it.’ ”
Aisha, a 24-year-old sales associate, is married to Michael, whom she met while
working with him at a retail store. She described how she was “really conscious of
having a relationship with a white guy,” citing that she was “afraid” of what people
would say, particularly her family and friends. Aisha described her own hesitation
around Michael’s motives when they first started dating, asking him “why” he
wanted to be with a Black woman before she “let him into her world.” She
recounted the opposition she still deals with from within her community: “Being
married to a Black man would be easier....Igotodance clubs [predominantly
Black] without him because it would be uncomfortable. ...Orwhen he came to the
West Indian Day Parade, it was a problem; everyone was like, ‘Who’s this; how
dare you bring a white guy to this?’ ”
Gwen, a university professor in her early forties, recalled how the opposition she
encountered affected a previous relationship with a fellow white student she dated
during college.
I had dated a white guy when I was in graduate school for about three or four years . . .
but in that relationship had difficulty. I don’t even think I ever admitted to anyone that
we were actually dating. ...Ihadalwayssaid I would never date someone who’s
white. Never, ever, and I thought that to do that, it was betraying your race . . . that I
could never love someone who was from a different racial background because they
wouldn’t understand me, my culture. ...Iwasalwaysself-conscious about doing
things with him, and I think it was because I hadn’t come to terms with our relation-
ship, but I wasn’t so sure he didn’t see me as a novelty. He had never dated anyone
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 555
African American, and I had never dated anyone white. We were both coming to this
as naive people.
Yet now, Gwen is married to a white man, Bill, whom she met while doing research
for a postdoctoral fellowship at a high school where he was teaching. When I asked
her what changed her mind, she said it was a number of factors. “I did remember
that [in this first relationship] being in the mall, places like that, with him and going
up the escalator one day, and there were these Black girls behind us, and they were
insulting to me, and I got angry. I think what they alsodid was toughen me up a little
bit and decide that I could do what I wanted to do and didn’t feel that I had to con-
form to anyone.” Gwen’s narrative reveals how initially her knowledge of African
American opposition (and her own distrust of whites) influenced her views,but
with Bill, she had grown stronger from the way she had been treated previously and
felt more comfortable being in an interracial relationship.
While both the interracially involved women and the college women discuss the
opposition of others, the difference in age between the two groups may affect their
views and choices regarding interracial relationships. For example, Gwen dis-
cussed the way her views on interracial dating changed from when she was a gradu-
ate student who secretly dated a white man and viewed all interracial relationships
as a betrayal of the Black community to her decision as a postdoctoral student to get
involved with Bill, who became her husband. Gwen stated that as she got older, she
did not let others’ views affect her and her decision about whom to date. While she
no longer views all interracial relationships as a betrayal, she does voice the same
views as the college women when addressing her own struggle with feeling like a
“sellout” and her belief that some interracial relationships justly fit the term, espe-
cially those involving Black men who only date white women.
I thought for a long time that I was selling out. It was also that you didn’t see people of
your own race as being attractive and desirable and worth being involved with. I don’t
think that anymore. I don’t think all of us sell out; I think that those of us who are mar-
ried to whites who are actively involved in the African American community feel we
must do it and more likely throw ourselves into it. We might be trying to prove our-
selves a bit too much, but there are Black males who fit the stereotype that will never
date a Black woman. I think they are insecure and do anything they can to distance
themselves from Black, does whatever he can to lighten up his gene pool.
Gwen reaffirmed her own racial identity in terms of her commitment to racial soli-
darity and mentioned activities and organizations she is involved in to counter the
sellout image. “If people have questioned my credibility, they’ve questioned it
behind my back. I don’t think people would dare question it to my face. The stuff
that I have done [both her academic credentials as professor on race and her com-
munity work for racial justice], I mean it’s such a dumb question on credibility....I
know I’m more likely to step up to the plate than a lot of them are.” Gwen draws on
her participation in and commitment to the Black communities she lives in and
works in to contradict this image of a sellout, not unlike the college women who
556 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005
described Black women in interracial relationships as more acceptable because the
women were likely to stay committed to their community.
The other interracially married women I interviewed (Aisha and Sharon) never
acknowledged viewing interracial relationships as selling out, emphasizing how
limiting and ignorant they thought that belief is:
I’ve been called a sellout by Black men, but ...itdoesn’t make me feel bad because
whites don’t owe me anything, so I can’t imagine what I’m selling out to. (Aisha)
I am a strong Black woman on my own; it’s about the man, not the color. (Sharon)
While Gwen acknowledged that she may work harder in Black communities
because of not wanting to be discredited among Blacks, Aisha and Sharon do not
feel their relationships or actions can be used as indicators of how Black they are.
While the Black women I interviewed may struggle with familial and commu-
nity opposition, none believed that they had internalized white racism or were
rejecting Black men or a Black identity. These interracially involved women had
less to say about interracial relationships between Black men and white women,
quite possibly because they had a partner or even because their white partner was
present. Only Gwen discussed the issue in depth, offering a similar perspective to
that of the college women interviewed:
I would think not all Black women have opposition to it, but there are some Black
women who do, and that’sbecause the number of available Black males is very small.
Available Black males who are employed and not in prison is very small ...soBlack
males who go to predominantly white colleges and marry white women, you havea
lot of educated Black males being taken completely out of the pool and you have these
[Black] women who . . . and white men weren’t dating the Black women ...sothey
had little chance for relationships, so there was some resentment toward white women
because of that; there is some wondering why, that when a Black man makes it, that he
all of a sudden thinks that white women are more desirable.
Even though she is interracially married, Gwen understands and may even agree
with the collective opposition among Black women toward Black-white relation-
ships involving a Black man and white woman.
DISCUSSION
Significant attention has been paid to interracial dating and marriage within
social scientific research, the media, and to a lesser extent, popular culture. Yet
Black women’s experiences and views have been largely neglected, or if addressed,
Black women have been depicted as angry and oppositional to interracial relation-
ships with little attention paid to the basis of this anger and opposition. Ihave
addressed this void by shifting the focus away from interracial couples and instead
listening to the voices of Black women about their views on interracial relation-
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 557
ships. The data presented suggest that Black women’s opposition to interracial dat-
ing is not rooted simply in jealousy and anger toward white women as is often por-
trayed but is based on what interracial relationships represent to Black women and
signify about Black women’s worth. The collective opposition to interracial rela-
tionships is not based in the belief that whites are inferior or undesirable, but rather
it is based on white racism, Black internalization of racism, and ulterior motives.
These data show how interracial relationships affect people differently based on
race and gender, with Black women’s having a reduced number of available Black
male partners due to their higher rates of interracial dating as well as fewer opportu-
nities to date interracially. The women expressed their frustration and anger not
with individual couples but with a society that devalued their worth as women and
how men from their own racial communities seem to have bought into these nega-
tive images. Black men dating interracially are seen as a rejection of Black woman-
hood and an embracement of white womanhood. These findings suggest that inter-
racial couples are not viewed as individual relationships but rather are seen as
representative of a lack of economic and cultural commitment to African American
communities.
The Black women’s responses show that their opposition is based on how these
relationships affect them, yet their responses also suggest that individual interracial
relationships were accepted, which was further highlighted in the interviews with
the interracially married Black women. The interracially married Black women
acknowledged and discussed the opposition that exists focusing on their own expe-
riences, yet they still made the decision to marry white men. The Black college
women’s discussion differed from the interracially married women’s, with their
focus on Black men dating white women, which may be attributed to the college
women’s younger age and the fact that they were looking for partners. Still, most of
these women knew and expressed conditional acceptance for interracial couples
that did not fit the negative images that they discussed and under certain circum-
stances, such as the “African-dancing interracial couple” mentioned by one college
woman. The opposition to the relationships diminished, or at least lessened, when
the white partners did not fit the model of white racism that was expected or the
Black partner maintained a commitment to the Black communities, particularly
Black women with white men who remained grounded in Black communities.
Relationships between Black men and white women, even if based on love,
respect, and commitment, are viewed as detrimental to Black women, the Black
family structure, and the survival of Black communities. The underlying reality
that the Black college women described is a shortage of available Black men and a
lack of “substantive opportunities” to date interracially because of the white stan-
dards of beauty that deem them unsuitable mates to white men (Collins 2004).
Listening to the responses of these women has added a different perspectiveto
the research on interracial relationships by taking into account how these relation-
ships affect Black women. Yet now, what can be done? Some, such as Kennedy
(2003), argue, “We all embrace ...acosmopolitan ethos that welcomes the pros-
pect of genuine, loving interracial intimacy.” But the solution is not so simple as to
558 GENDER & SOCIETY / August 2005
encourage Black women to embrace interracial dating, as this view ignores the real-
ities underlying their opposition. Yet there are no new simple answers. Collins sug-
gested, “Moving through this pain requires more than blaming White women for
allegedly taking Black men, or Black men for rejecting us. It demands changing the
‘circumstances that create the pain’ ” (2000, 166). While the focus of this work has
been on Black women’s views on interracial relationships, the “problem” is cer-
tainly not a problem of Black women, as Black women alone do not have the power
to change the current situation. Yet it is not even aproblem of interracial couples, as
interracial couples did not create the current structure even though they are sym-
bolic of the problem to Black women. Rather, it is a problem of racism and sexism,
where Black women are devalued based on their race and gender. For change to
occur, whites and Blacks, men and women, need to begin by addressing these racial
and gender inequalities.
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Erica Chito Childs is an assistant professor of sociology at Eastern Connecticut State University.
Her first book, Navigating Interracial Borders: Black-White Couples and Their Social Worlds
(2005, Rutgers University Press), explores societal responses to interracial relationships. Her
research areas include race and ethnic relations, family, and media/popular culture studies.
Chito Childs / THE “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN” 561
