Abstract
Interracial intimacy is a popular topic in sociology. While earlier studies explained interracial couples through their characteristics, motives, and similarities/differences compared to same-race couples, more recent qualitative studies explore the social worlds of interracial couples, primarily black–white partners. Beyond Loving: Intimate Racework in Lesbian, Gay and Straight Interracial Relationships is a refreshing addition to this growing body of literature. What is original about Steinbugler’s work is her inclusion of same-sex couples and focus on how both gay and straight interracial couples navigate America’s racially stratified landscape.
Beyond Loving draws from in-depth interviews with 82 black–white interracial partners and ethnographic observations of a limited number of the couples interviewed. Each chapter explores the social worlds of black–white couples, and through a careful analysis of their narratives, Steinbugler reveals how their identities, relationships, and lives are shaped across systems of stratification. The book is organized into seven chapters, beginning with a historical examination of heterosexual and same-sex interracial intimacy. The next four chapters focus on “racework,” defined as “the routine actions and strategies through which individuals maintain close relationships across lines of racial stratification,” in different aspects of interracial partners’ lives (p. xiii).
Chapters two and three focus on how interracial partners navigate racially segregated spaces and handle racial prejudice. Because lesbian and gay communities tend to be racially segregated, these interracial couples face the added burden of seeking queer spaces that are racially mixed or accepting of their relationship. In this study, black lesbians report more struggles with navigating racialized spaces than black gay men, who tend to live and socialize in white settings with no intense connection to black social spaces. Steinbugler notes that this may be because her black lesbian sample is younger, has a lower median income, and is in more recent relationships than her sample of black gay men. This ties into findings from previous research that black women in interracial relationships, heterosexual or lesbian, report being more conflicted than black men about bringing white partners to black spaces.
Steinbugler employs the concepts of racial prejudice, homophobia, and stigma to discuss how interracial couples manage their hypervisibility and invisibility in public. Black–white couples face racial prejudice in a variety of ways, yet individuals’ narratives reveal how in most neighborhoods, only heterosexual black–white couples are recognized as intimate partners. Lesbian and gay black–white couples experience a deeper sense of invisibility because strangers rarely see them as a couple; it is unclear whether their status as an interracial couple and/or same-sex couple explains this. When same-sex couples are recognized as a couple in public, racial prejudice is compounded by homophobic reactions. Therefore, these couples were much more likely to discuss ways they manage public displays of affection by assessing their environment—scanning for other same-sex couples or rainbow symbols, or checking their geographic location—before holding hands or sharing a kiss.
Chapter four uses Eduardo Bonilla Silva’s concept of racial habitus to frame the discussion of racework between partners within their relationship. Black–white partners can have difficulty negotiating relationships when each has a different racial lens through which they see the world. Some black partners struggle with their white partner’s lack of knowledge or newfound understanding of racial inequalities, “innocence long lost” (p. 79) to black partners who have been dealing with racism their entire lives. Steinbugler finds that the emotional labor of managing an intimate interracial relationship occurs at different points in the relationship and influences whether the relationship continues or ends.
Chapter five continues to explore boundary work and how couples maintain interracial identities. Her findings on hetersosexual couples mirror previous research that identified the use of color-blind discourses, and would have been strengthened by some discussion of recent work examining the patterns in and powerful influence of media portrayals of interracial unions. Yet, Steinbugler offers new insight in her discussions of how lesbian and gay interracial couples construct an interracial identity. Unlike heterosexual couples who can draw upon color-blind heterosexuality to argue they are similar to same-race heterosexual couples, lesbian and gay interracial couples do not have these discourses at their disposal. Instead, these couples approach racial difference and their sexuality in three ways. Couples argue that lesbian and gay sexuality either compounds racial difference, with each shaping the couple’s identities, eclipses racial difference by having a larger impact on the way others perceive them, or diffuses racial difference, making it less salient because they are already seen as sexually deviant. Chapter six gauges couples’ racial literacy by examining how interracial couples’ relationships impact partners’ views of their own racial identities.
Beyond Loving offers a well-written and critically analytical window into the intimate lives of interracial couples. The book’s greatest strength lies in Steinbugler’s challenge to previous literature on interracial couples, which relies on assumptions of heterosexuality. By simultaneously examining both heterosexual and same-sex couples, she offers a fresh perspective on the multiple ways interracial couples—both straight and gay—construct their identities and relationships in contemporary America. She acknowledges the challenges of researching interracial intimacy through couples’ narratives, particularly the difficulty of representing the complexities of interracial unions, and how racial difference does and does not matter in couples’ everyday lives. Steinbugler certainly meets this challenge, producing a powerful tale of the intimate politics of interraciality that will benefit anyone interested in the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender.