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Interracial Images: Exploring Popular Culture Depictions of Black-
White Couples
Erica Chito Childs
The issue of interracial coupling between African-Americans and
whites has always been a controversial issue in America. The increasing
number of black-white couples is often seen as a sign of society’s growing
acceptance of these unions, yet certain images of interracial couples, as
deviant or inherently different from intraracial couples, still dominate.
Significant opposition to interracial couples still exists within families,
communities, and the larger society (Childs 2001; McNamara et al. 1999;
Rosenblatt et.al 1996). Nowhere is this opposition more apparent than in
our popular culture, especially mainstream box-office films that rarely
depict intimate black-white relationships. Those films that do include an
interracial couple tend to reinforce the existing racial hierarchy,
rendering interracial relationships problematic.
Popular culture is a legitimate source of data for research that
contributes to our understanding of not only popular culture, but also our
collective beliefs, values and social institutions (Ferguson and Golding;
Miller and McHoul 1998). Since popular media forms, such as film, can be
viewed as a reflection of society’s views and beliefs, it is important to
look at the way that interracial relationships are depicted (or not
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Convention