By Lincoln
April 3, 2010
Many of us in GAAPP have an instinctive aversion to state involvement in romantic relationships between consenting adults. But we also know from the feminist movement that “the personal is political”. Meetings with former Sao Paolo City Councilwoman Claudete Alves and others have given me reason to consider ways that the state could discourage racism in people’s selection of romantic partners.
Claudete’s research has shown that Black Brazilian women (especially those who are middle class) are much less likely to marry than any other demographic. This is troubling for these women, and also for the long term demographic effects (essentially continuing the whitening project that began with incentives for European migration).
One of the possible explanations is that black women are the ones giving the cold shoulder to suitors. Claudete’s research, however, shows that this is not what’s going on. Rather, both white men and black men are choosing to marry fairer skinned (mulatta or white) women. She was careful to note that this holds true only for marriage; men regularly court black women for “flings”.
We know that the Brazilian state (but we could substitute the U.S. and other countries) has had a role in creating this configuration. Brazil pursued a whitening policy through preferring European immigrants, and encouraging those immigrants to procreate with the existing population. This policy, among others, perpetuated white supremacy, which is now being exhibited in men’s mating choices.
The question is, can the state play a role in undoing this intimate form of racism?
One possibility would be to regulate personal ads so that they must be “color blind.” This wouldn’t stop people from having racial preferences about who they date, but it would mean that those who use personal ads to search for mates would have to meet the prospective partners in person before finding out what their race is. This in turn might help debunk stereotypes and cause people to reconsider their prejudices. This would be controversial of course, and it sounds a bit too much like limiting speech, but discussing drastic and controversial proposals might help us conceive of more palatable ones.
Another (intersectional) possibility is that public education could do more to disrupt the expectation that men do the courting. If women, including black women, could seek out mates without the social stigma, then women’s preferences would be more evenly reflected in marriage patterns. (Current marriage patterns reflect men’s preference, since men usually take the lead on courting and proposing marriage. Of course, women have “veto power”, but the structure still enshrines mens’ preferences). My proposal to encourage female-led courtships assumes that some men who would not currently seek out a black woman would be open to marrying one if she initiated the romance, which I think is undoubtedly true. Men who subconsciously prefer lighter-skinned women would have to reconsider their prejudices if a black female partner initiated the relationship.
A third possibility would be to use public education to end the expectation that men be the primary wage-earners, and women be the primary caretakers of children. Middle class black women are hurt by the current configuration when it comes to the marriage market, because there are more middle class black women than middle class black men in Brazil (even though, on average, black men earn more). If we assume that black men are the most likely to marry black women, this means that there is a smaller number of black men who meet the implicit social norm that the man be the primary wage-earner. Of course, this proposal is easier said than done. It might ultimately be more realistic to use an intersectional theory to create a special university admissions category for black men, in order to increase the number of middle class black men in Brazil.
Interestingly, men would also benefit from a configuration that decreases the expectation that they be the primary wage earner, and/or increases space for women (including black women) to initiate romantic relationships without facing stigma.
