White like who? The value of whiteness in British interracial families |
White like who? The value of whiteness in British interracial families
Ethnicities
Volume 10, Number 3 (September 2010)
pages 292-312
DOI: 10.1177/1468796810372306
France Winddance Twine, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara
The value of whiteness is not fixed, rather it has contradictory and competing meanings among members of Black British interracial families. Drawing upon racial consciousness interviews and participant observation conducted as part of a longitudinal study of Black-White interracial families in England, this article presents the analysis of five black members of interracial families to show the fluid value of whiteness. An analysis of interviews with sixteen black family members uncovered four discourses or analytical frames employed by blacks as they evaluated the impact of their white family member upon the family. These four frames reveal that white family members are perceived as both a source of status and stigma. Black family members perceived their white spouses, partners and sisters-in-laws as: 1) an asset – a source of economic, social and symbolic capital, 2) a source of injury, 3) a cultural liability and 4) a source of sexual adventure that threatened the respectability of the family.
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Tags: Ethnicities, France Winddance Twine