{"id":54383,"date":"2017-07-05T19:08:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T19:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=54383"},"modified":"2017-07-05T19:20:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T19:20:29","slug":"from-loving-v-virginia-to-barack-obama-the-symbolic-tie-that-binds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=54383","title":{"rendered":"From Loving v. Virginia To Barack Obama: The Symbolic Tie That Binds"},"content":{"rendered":"

From <\/strong><\/em>Loving v. Virginia<\/strong> To Barack Obama: The Symbolic Tie That Binds<\/strong> <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Creighton Law Review<\/a>
\nVolume\u00a050,\u00a0Number\u00a03 (2017)<\/a>
\npages 641-668<\/p>\n

G. Reginald Daniel<\/a>,<\/strong> Professor of Sociology
\nUniversity of California, Santa Barbara<\/em><\/p>\n

Jasmine Kelekay<\/strong><\/a>
\nDepartment of Sociology
\nUniversity of California, Santa Barbara<\/em><\/p>\n

I. INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

The year 2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia<\/em><\/a>, which declared anti-miscegenation laws to be unconstitutional. For many, the Loving<\/em> decision represents a symbolic turning point in the history of United States racial politics. Some even celebrate the Loving<\/em> decision and the argued subsequent \u201cbiracial baby boom\u201d as the beginning of a post-racial United States<\/a>. Indeed, statistics indicating that fifteen percent of all new marriages are interracial and polls suggesting that a majority of Americans today approve of interracial marriage are cited as evidence of the erosion of racial boundaries and tensions. For many, the 2008 election of Barack Hussein Obama<\/a>, the offspring of an African father and European American mother, as the forty-fourth President\u2014and the first Black President\u2014of the United States similarly marked a symbolic victory affirming that racism has finally been overcome and the United States is a truly post-racial society. However, the year 2017 also marks the end of Obama\u2019s presidency and\u2014importantly\u2014the inauguration of Donald J. Trump<\/a> as President of the United States. Consequently, we are not only forced to examine this critical juncture in the history of United States racial politics, but are also required to critically examine the past fifty years and ask the following question: to what extent have the symbolic victories of Loving<\/em> and the election of Obama been imbued with aspirations that have yet to be fully actualized? Loving<\/em> and the election of President Obama are undoubtedly important milestones in the history of United States jurisprudence and racial politics. Yet a careful analysis of interracial marriage trends, the politics of mixed race identity, and the waves of backlash against Obama\u2019s presidency\u2014which range from contesting his legitimacy and opposing his political efforts to explicitly racist rhetoric and the recent election of Donald Trump as President\u2014suggest that the post-racial potential promised by Loving has remained more aspirational than actualized. Accordingly, in order to understand the legacy of Loving<\/em>, we must think critically about interracial intimacy and contemporary United States race relations, taking into account the persistent inequities imbedded in the United States racial order and the continued relevance of anti-Blackness in the struggles for a more egalitarian society.<\/p>\n

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

Accordingly, in order to understand the legacy of Loving, we must think critically about interracial intimacy and contemporary United States race relations, taking into account the persistent inequities imbedded in the United States racial order and the continued relevance of anti-Blackness in the struggles for a more egalitarian society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,1467,8,394,20],"tags":[27201,142,27200,70],"class_list":["post-54383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-law","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-creighton-law-review","tag-g-reginald-daniel","tag-jasmine-kelekay","tag-loving-v-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54383","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=54383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54384,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54383\/revisions\/54384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}