Marginal Citizens: Interracial intimacies and the incarceration of Japanese Canadians, 1942–1949

Following Japan’s 1941 attacks on Hawai’i and Hong Kong, Canada relocated, detained, and exiled citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry. Many interracial families, however, were exempted from this racial project called the internment. The form of the exemption was an administrative permit granted to its holder on the basis of their marital or patrilineal proximity to whiteness. This article analyzes these permits relying on archival research and applying a critical race feminist lens to explore how law was constitutive of race at this moment in Canadian history. I argue that the permits recategorized interracial intimacies towards two racial ends: to differentiate the citizen from the “enemy alien”; and to regulate the interracial family according to patriarchal common law principles. This article nuances received narratives of law as an instrument of racial exclusion by documenting the way in which a new inclusive state measure sustained old exclusions.

Relationships Between Parents-In-Law and Children-In-Law of Differing Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds

In-law relationships have drawn recent interest from family scholars. Historical trends demonstrate a significant rise in newlyweds marrying someone of a different race or ethnicity. Given this growing population of inter-racial marriage, the need to know more about these couples and their families is paramount. This article describes four themes that emerged from qualitative interviews with nine parents-in-law discussing their relationships with their child-in-law who is of a different race. The overarching themes identified for in-laws included: being initially hesitant based on race and/or culture; managing barriers pertaining to communication, language, and/or culture; differences that were enriching to the in-law relationship; and bonding related to shared minority status. Based on these findings, social workers may assume a supportive role for members of interracial families as they navigate not only social barriers but also their in-law relationships.

From my own flesh and blood: An exploratory examination of discrimination from family for Black/White Multiracial people

This qualitative study examined instances of racial discrimination from family members among 36 Black/White Multiracial individuals. Forms of discrimination included stereotyping, identity invalidation, racist comments, lack of acknowledgment, vicarious discrimination, and negativity. Participants responded to discrimination by distancing themselves from family members, resisting, and/or dismissing discrimination. Discriminatory experiences made race more salient for participants. Participants reported feeling hurt, alienated, and confused following discrimination. Implications of findings for social workers counseling Multiracial people and interracial families are discussed.

Inheritance, Family, and Mixed-Race Jamaicans, 1700–1761

This chapter evaluates the evolving legal and cultural standing of elite mixed-race Jamaicans in the first half of the eighteenth century. It describes why so many interracial families formed on the island as well as the legal restrictions imposed on mixed-race people by the colony’s legislature, the Jamaican assembly. In particular, it considers how concerns over the balance between a small white and large enslaved population in Jamaica created security fears as well as demographic anxieties about mixed-race families. However, the chapter shows that elite free people of color carved out legal privileges for themselves by petitioning directly to the assembly. Moreover, the assembly experimented early on with allowing family connections, wealth, and ancestry to put certain mixed-race people into the legal category of “white.” A series of enslaved rebellions in the middle of the eighteenth century named Tacky’s Revolt, along with growing concerns about improper households across the British Empire, resulted in more restrictions against mixed-race Jamaicans generally by 1761. Yet, island rulers still held onto a demographic hope that certain elites of color—namely those who had spent time in Britain—could become the seedbed on which to grow a strong white population.