Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

The validity of the antimiscegenation law itself could also be questioned under the fourteenth amendment by requiring the showing of a reasonable legislative purpose for its enactment. There is serious doubt that any valid reason could be shown for this type of statute. In fact, the three basic arguments which are often advanced to support these statutes; namely, that the children of these marriages would be inferior, that social tensions and domestic problems are lessened, and that psychological hardships to the offspring are avoided, have been discredited. Therefore the application of a reasonable legislative purpose test would most likely lead to a finding of unconstitutionality under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment, especially since the usual presumption of a valid legislative purpose is not applied to cases dealing with racial classifications.

However, a better approach might be to recognize that the right of the individual to marry is a fundamental right, protected under the clear and present danger test. Surely it is a right which can be considered as important to the individual as is his right to own property or his freedom of speech. The United States Supreme Court has acknowledged that marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race.

C. Michael Conter, “Recent Decisions: Constitutional Law: Miscegenation Laws,” Marquette Law Review, Volume 48, Issue 4 (Spring 1965): pages 616-620.

The overarching commonality is the exceptionalism of blackness and non-whiteness, rather than multiraciality, as problematic.

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2016-11-24 21:57Z by Steven

[Tanya K.] Hernandez’s close examination of many multiracial discrimination legal cases in a variety of equality law contexts demonstrates the fallacy and danger of that presumption. The cases frequently describe acts of discrimination accompanied by pointed, derogatory comments about non-whiteness—and blackness in particular. The overarching commonality is the exceptionalism of blackness and non-whiteness, rather than multiraciality, as problematic. Although the complainants may personally identify as multiracial, they present allegations of public discrimination rooted in a specific non-white and black bias that is not novel or particular to mixed-race persons.

Shane Danaher, “Multiracialism and Civil Rights,” Fordham Law News, November 21, 2016. http://news.law.fordham.edu/blog/2016/11/21/multiracialism-and-civil-rights/.

Tags: Fordham Law News, Shane Danahe, Tanya Hernández, Tanya K. Hernández, Tanya Kateri Hernández

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Mixed Race Studies

The overarching commonality is the exceptionalism of blackness and non-whiteness, rather than multiraciality, as problematic.

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