Visibility as Privilege and Danger: Heterosexual and Same-Sex Interracial Intimacy in the 21st Century

Abstract

Sexuality scholars largely neglect interracial intimacy in the United States as a site worthy of sustained empirical research. Consequently, monoraciality is not adequately problematized or identified as a racial prerequisite to fundamental heterosexual privileges. Further, by implicitly constructing same-sex couples as monoracial, scholars fail to consider how heterosexuality and White supremacy together saturate public spaces to render queer interraciality profoundly invisible. In this essay I critique the monoracial bias of sexuality research by analyzing interracial narratives on the topic of visibility. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with four heterosexual and four same-sex interracial couples, I argue that for interracial partners a paradoxical tension surrounds visibility. Though couples may seek public affirmation of intimate relationships, for both heterosexual and queer interracial couples, public recognition risks harassment or violence.

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