Abstract
Most studies of racial intermarriage rely on the prevalence of intermarriage to measure the strength of group boundaries, without scrutinizing the nature of intermarriage pairings. Examination of intermarried couples’ characteristics reveals (1) that intermarriages and endogamous marriages follow different patterns, and (2) that intermarriage pairings for some groups reflect a generalized racial status hierarchy. According to evidence from the 1990 U.S. Census PUMS, patterns in blacks’ and Mexican Americans’ marriages with whites suggest that a generalized racial status hierarchy disadvantages members of these minority groups. For marriages between Japanese Americans and whites, however, crossing the group boundary does not affect couples’ characteristics.
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I am grateful to Lawrence Bobo, Nelson Lim, Robert Mare, Valerie Oppenheimer, Judith Seltzer, Edward Telles, and seminar participants at UCLA for their encouragement and valuable comments. The completion of this research was supported by a fellowship from the Program of Fellowships for Junior Scholars, MacArthur Research Network on Social Interactions and Economic Inequality. Portions of this paper were presented at the 1997 annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, held in Toronto, and the 2000 annual meetings of the Population Association of America, held in Los Angeles.
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Fu, V.K. Racial intermarriage pairings. Demography 38, 147–159 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2001.0011
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2001.0011