who interracially date may be at the vanguard of this process, looking beyond skin color for romantic
partnerships and portending a less racially stratified future (Joyner and Kao 2005; Vaquera and Kao 2005).
Understanding the obstacles facing young interracial couples may therefore help us understand subsequent
patterns of interracial marriage and the mechanisms underlying racial stratification.
This project explores the risks of informal sanctions associated with adolescent interracial dating.
Although numerous ethnographic accounts document the sanctions leveled at interracial couples (Dalmage
2000; Datzman and Gardner 2000; Foeman and Nance 1999; Rosenblatt et al. 1995; Spickard 1989), empirical
research of this issue remains limited. It is therefore unclear if young interracial couples are at greater risk of
peer and parent problems than intra-racial couples or non-dating adolescents. In this chapter, I compare these
groups along several dimensions of social interaction, including (1) self-reported measures of violent
victimization, (2) trouble getting along with other students, and (3) lack of closeness to parents. I analyze these
outcomes using multi-level models and data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add
Health). I hypothesize that, net of controls for selection and state dependence, involvement in an interracial
relationship will increase the risk of problematic peer encounters and reduce levels of parent closeness. I assert
that these patterns reflect normative pressures toward racial homophily and that such behavior maintains high
rates of racial segregation within even the most integrated school settings.
BORDER PATROLLING
On the night of August 23, 1989, a 16 year-old black male, Yusuf Hawkins, was shot to death by a
white 18 year-old male, Kieth Modello, in the predominantly Italian New York neighborhood of Bensonhurst.
The incident occurred after Modello and approximately 30 other white male youths attacked Hawkins and three
of his friends, who were in the neighborhood looking to buy a used car. Upon questioning, Modello confessed
that he was upset that his ex-girlfriend had recently dated minority men and had invited blacks and Hispanics to
her birthday party, scheduled for the evening of the murder. Modello’s rage at his ex-girlfriend’s sexual
transgressions was directed at Hawkins, whose death served as a warning to other minorities that white women
are not to be ‘polluted’ by black sexuality.
Although extreme, the Hawkins murder demonstrates the extent to which third parties may enact
sanctions aimed at preventing interracial sexual relationships. As Dalmage (2000) asserts, such ‘border
patrolling’ behaviors serve to maintain the racial superiority and privilege felt by white males. These behaviors
are often couched in terms of protecting the ‘purity’ of white women from the ‘uncivilized’ sexuality of
minority (particularly black) males (Perry 2002). Historically, white fears of non-white sexualities were allayed
by formal sanctions from churches or the state (Kalmijn 1998). However, with the repeal of the last of the state’s
antimiscegenation laws, any formal means of preventing racial heterogamy has all but disappeared.
Unfortunately, the attitudes lying behind these laws have not, especially among young lower and working class
white males who feel increasingly threatened by the directions of social change (Fine et al. 1997). A widely-
publicized national Gallup poll illustrates the current attitudinal heterogeneity regarding adolescent interracial
romance. Although a majority of sampled teenagers stated that they had dated someone of another race, there
Convention