{"id":24329,"date":"2012-07-14T15:34:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T15:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=24329"},"modified":"2012-11-10T18:11:20","modified_gmt":"2012-11-10T18:11:20","slug":"playing-the-interracial-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=24329","title":{"rendered":"Playing the Interracial Card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing the Interracial Card<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2012-07-12<\/p>\n

Kevin Noble Maillard<\/a><\/strong>, Associate Professor of Law
\nSyracuse University<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“The Miscegenation Ball<\/a>” Source: Smithsonian Museum of American History (1864)<\/small><\/p>\n

Color print of a dance occuring at the Lincoln Central Campaign Club in New York Sept. 22, 1864. A portrait of Lincoln hangs on the wall. Black women fashionably dressed dance and converse with white men.<\/small><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What is the most reliable way to destroy a political career? Financial shenanigans, criminal records or college antics are all reliable showstoppers, but it\u2019s usually the salacious sex scandal that brings the house down. Jack Ryan<\/a>, who ran for the Senate against Barack Obama<\/a> (for a while), brought us Parisian sex clubs. Mark Sanford<\/a>, former governor of South Carolina<\/a>, famously hiked the Appalachian Trail<\/a>. And former senator John Edwards<\/a> offered a scorching mess of \u201cWhat To Expect When You\u2019re Expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Add race to the question \u2014 particularly interrace \u2014 and political prurience goes into overdrive. The confluence of miscegenation<\/a> and politics speaks to America\u2019s fundamental anxiety about racial boundaries. It\u2019s been a rug-puller of careers as long America has been a republic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the candidate is one race, and the spouse\/partner\/\u201cfriend\u201d is another, opponents find a combustible cocktail to stir voter insecurities. Ask the ghost of Thomas Jefferson<\/a>, who weathered decades of criticism about his relationship with \u201cDusky Sally\u201d [Sally Hemings<\/a>], his mixed-race slave who bore six mixed-race children. Consider Richard Johnson<\/a>, vice president under Martin Van Buren<\/a>, whom the press condemned for taking a \u201cjet-black, thick-lipped, odiferous negro wench\u201d as his common-law wife. Fast forward to Harold Ford Jr.<\/a>, who was maligned during his 2006 Senate campaign in Tennessee<\/a> as a white woman-loving playboy. For these figures \u2014 just a few of many \u2014 the color line drew rings around their reputation.<\/p>\n

Why would an interracial relationship become a dangerous political liaison? For most people, sex and relationships are private actions, but for public figures, intimate life turns into news. Add race to the mix, and it raises eyebrows.<\/strong> Obama had a white girlfriend in college? Sarah Palin<\/a> may or may not have dated a black athlete? There are European royals of black and Asian descent? (Lichtenstein and Denmark.) At minimum, such pairings are imaginatively interesting. But why does it matter?…<\/p>\n

…Miscegenation is the original race card. Accusations have affected all political persuasions and races, to a point where the fixation becomes the candidate\u2019s defining element. Jefferson is certainly not alone in the accusations against him. Abraham Lincoln\u2019s<\/a> opponents published a campaign cartoon, \u201cThe Miscegenation Ball<\/a>,\u201d that lampooned an interracial regime where white men and black women freely dance, flirt and carouse. And Strom Thurmond<\/a>, who infamously denounced integration of homes, schools and pools, was ultimately revealed to have a mixed pool of his own<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Read the entire essay here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Playing the Interracial Card The New York Times 2012-07-12 Kevin Noble Maillard, Associate Professor of Law Syracuse University “The Miscegenation Ball” Source: Smithsonian Museum of American History (1864) Color print of a dance occuring at the Lincoln Central Campaign Club in New York Sept. 22, 1864. A portrait of Lincoln hangs on the wall. Black […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,26,20],"tags":[4330,4329,1234,2640,2327],"class_list":["post-24329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-kevin-maillard","tag-kevin-n-maillard","tag-kevin-noble-maillard","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}