Beyond black and white: Couples negotiating identifications

This study examines the discourse of black and white interracial couples to better understand how social structures are reflected in their experiences and talk as spouses. The study was designed to answer the question: “How are social structures and the cultural identification issues of race, sex, gender and class negotiated in the relational accounts of black and white interracial partners?” The design of the study also featured the voices of the couples in dialogue so that the joint negotiation of these issues could be explored. The study was theoretically grounded in an integration of an interpretive and critical perspective.; Each of the twelve volunteer couples was interviewed jointly in two sessions. The interviews produced from two to five hours of audiotaped conversation derived from a prepared interview guide containing open-ended questions. Both black and white coders participated in coding the data, from which six discursive thematic sites emerged, featuring couples' talk about race and other cultural issues. The couples' discourse within those six themes was further analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis.; Overall, couples' negotiated strategies were determined to be protective of themselves as individuals, the relationship, as well as for their family and friends. Several results of the study included the following: (a) use of an in-the-present perspective as well as forms of mitigation to cope with parental disapproval; (b) development of specific limited support networks; (c) use of strategies that promoted positive face; (d) resistance to racial labels through use of Extreme Case formulations and management of the dialectic of ordinary both/and unique, as well as similarity and difference; (e) color evasive and power evasive discourse was prevalent in the talk of most of the white females; and (f) some white women used racist and prejudicial language against black women to construct their own positive identifications of self.