Friday, May 4, 2007
bell hooks & Interracial Relationships
Some years ago in one her books, bell hooks stated that American society will shift or will best demonstrate its shift/change when there are more legitimate white male/non-white female pairings particularly with black women. She used the examples of white men who made or sought to make their relationships with black women legitimate during slavery and Jim Crow and the responses of the white community (more often than not he was judged insane) as evidence of this. Actually, I don’t disagree with the claim itself. I believe it is true, as far as it goes. However, I don’t think you’ll see white men pairing with black women in any significant numbers in this country any time soon.
We are constantly barraged with questions about why black men marry out more than black women. Actually, white men marry out more than white women as well, but no one asks about that. Of course, most white men marrying out are marrying Asian, not black women. Men in general are more prone to marrying out of their race. It makes sense. Women are still more restrained by societal norms than men are. More pressure is put on them to ‘stay with their own.’
I think there are several reasons why there’s a disparity in the numbers between black men and black women. First, black men have far more to gain. If he marries a white woman he gains status. The white woman, while she may well lose status in the white community, gains status in the black community, even over black women. She also has higher status than her husband. Many women find this notion attractive. The reverse is not true for black women and white men. Both lose status in their own community and don’t gain any significant status in the one they’re marrying into.
Also, black men and white women’s societal status is far closer than that of white men and black women. Its generally accepted that white men are at the top, black women at the bottom and white women and black men in the middle. The degrees of separation are far greater between black women and white men.
History also plays a major role in the distance between the two. Black women were de facto sexual chattel to white men for four hundred years. Those who point out that black men were also slaves don’t really comprehend the nature of sexual relationships. In heterosexual pair bonds men generally dominate the woman. I submit that for some black women there is almost a primal memory of that. Men are also better able to compartmentalize their sexual relationships from their politics so the speak. I think we’ve all seen racist men who hate everyone who is not of their race, except, of course, the woman they’re pulling cover with.
What are your thoughts about hooks’ claim? What about skin privilege and societal norms in general? Do you think the social structure is as I’ve indicated?
