Multiracial Couples: Black & White Voices

By Richard R. Powell, Paul C. Rosenblatt, Terri Karis, et al.

Book Overview

In Multiracial Couples, 21 couples in which one partner is black and the other is white talk about their experiences. The book offers a comprehensive and insightful analysis based on extensive quotations. It discusses the fact that these couples see their relationships as ordinary, as well as their encounters with racism. It also provides a pioneering exploration of how they became a couple, their relationships with families of origin and with the community, how partners dafine themselves as individuals and as a couple, the ways they defend against racism, their parenting experiences, what the partners learn from each other, and the blessings of being an interracial couple. The authors of Multiracial Couples provide a first-person account that will be equal value to professionals and scholars in family studies, race and ethnic studies, family psychology, and sociology. "Multiracial Couples is the result of a well-conducted study of 21 black/white couples and their experiences. It focuses strongly on the words of the participants themselves, rather than on a psychological interpretation of their words, and that is its great strength. Chapters cover topics from identity to societal racism, and although there is background material with each topic, the primary voices are the couples′. The authors then provide an interesting, comprehensive analysis with each chapter. These conclusions do not attempt to sum up, but instead offer additional ideas for thought. In essence, the authors provide a very sound framework and guidance for the discussion without being judgmental, and they do achieve the delicate balance necessary to the completeness of this text." --Interracial Voice "Multiracial Couples is a detailed look at a phenomenon that many individuals would like to see disappear. This cogent presentation of the issue is must reading. It is informative, written from a dispassionate but critical viewpoint, and reader-friendly. First addressing, in the authors′ words, ′the most corrosive form of white opposition to interracial couples--racism,′ the authors subsequently guide readers like a diary of an interracial relationship. . . . Family therapists, scholars, and practitioners will find this an invaluable resource. Highly recommended for all levels." --Choice "This is an unusual and unique book. . . . The issues, problems, perceptions and solutions have wide applicability. Therapists dealing with couple problems in multiracial countries will find these pages fascinating and instructive." --Kalyana Rodrigo in Sexual and Marital Therapy

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803972598
• ISBN13: 9780803972599
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Just a beginning

This book is a noble beginning at documenting the voices of those in inter-racial relationships. Unfortunately this is just that, a beginning. What about a relationship between a Mexican woman and an Asian man, or an Indian woman and a white man? What about all the other races in America. Today Latinos make up that largest minority group and yet there is no book documenting their inter-racial marriages. This is because books like this perpetuate an obsession with black-white race, rather then expanding the study to include all races and all relationships. It could have just been an overlook of the author to not include more diversity but it appears as if the book itself might be racist because it doesn't bother to look at the fact that inter-racial relationships are not `taboo' but rather are the norm between all the races in America, yet all the attention seems to be put on the black and white relationships. Seth J. Frantzman

Thank You!!!

I am the white partner an interracial relationship, and the mother of a beautiful biracial daughter. I came across this book years ago in my college library, and I loved it so much that I special ordered a copy of it through a local bookstore. I would just like to say thank you to the authors for writing it!Thank you......for not stereotyping, analyzing, or otherwise trying to dissect interracial relationships....for letting the voices of the interracial families in the book shine through....for respectfully showing interracial families as normal, wonderful and beautiful!...for the quote given by one of the people interviewed for the book - a white man married to a black woman took his son's pictures to a photo shop to be developed. When he returned to pick up the pictures, the white clerk at the store commented on how handsome the boy is, and told the boy's father: "Biracial children are the most beautiful children. They are God's way of showing the world that there shouldn't be bigotry". That quote made reading the book worthwhile!Thank you indeed!