Sexual Racism: Intimacy as a Matter of Justice

The heading above refers to a 2015 article from Sonu Bedi, a professor at Dartmouth College. The article discusses why prioritizing individuals as romantic partners in ways that reinforce ideas of racial hierarchy and stereotypes, or in other words, “sexual racism,” is unjust. Sexual racism follows racial favoritism. It’s not related to the concept of sexual preferences, but it contributes to the problematic conditions that structure the formation of romantic relationships. Bedi divides his argument into five parts:

1. Intimacy is justice
2. There should be concern when a person prioritizes race or stereotypes in choosing romantic, sexually intimate partners
3. Objects to the claim that prioritizing an intimate partners’ race is in the same category as other characteristics like height, and gender
4. Unjust discrimination in intimacy cannot be addressed the same way as unjust discrimination in employment
5. Suggesting a possible way to respond to sexual racism by viewing online dating websites as a public concern

Applying Arguments

Some of the arguments Bedi made can be applied to studying mixed-race Asian Americans. Intimacy is justice refers to both parties equally liking each other and wanting to pursue a romantic relationship with each other. Race does play a role, but it shouldn’t be a deciding factor when dating someone. Also, there should be a concern when a person prioritizes race or stereotypes in/not choosing romantic and/or sexually intimate partners. It ties together with racial favoritism and connects to racial fetishization.

Racial Fetishization

Racial fetishization refers to attributing specific characteristics to a person because of their race/ethnicity and wanting to date or be sexually intimate with them because of sexual desire. This term connects to dehumanization and racism. For example, America has a long history of hyper-sexualizing Asian women. In 1875, the Page Act prohibited Chinese women from entering the United States and classified these women as “prostitutes” and a threat to American mortality. In 1899, “The White Man’s Burden” condemned the sexual subjugation of the Philippines, including forced prostitution, rape, and abandoning mixed-race children. Also, Black women’s bodies were eroticized by European colonizers and was a common practice. A South African woman, Sara “Saartijie” Baartman, is a well-known example of this as she was made into an exhibition in the 1800s because of the size of her behind.

Racial fetishization serves as a problematic notion because there are people purposefully seeking relationships outside of their race to have mixed children (mixed babies fetishization). There are stereotypes that mixed children look “exotic,” “beautiful,” and “preferred.” Besides the issues of purposefully seeking outside your race to have children, it negatively affects the children. When imaging a mixed-race person, most people already have an image (stereotypes) of what that individual may look like. They envision a person with features associated with both races — a middle. But phenotype is not always 50/50, and it is a harmful imposed expectation on biracial people. It also views women/men/non-binary of the same-monoracial group as not good enough. This odd phenomenon is treated like a Build-a-Bear workshop, where people choose the stereotypical features they want their children to ‘have.’

Solution

Some ways to prevent racial fetishization are through education and awareness. It helps people understand the problematic notions of their behavior. Also, media plays a role in society today. Some media confirms this phenomenon by posting pictures and videos of mixed-race children with specific hashtags about the children’s racial backgrounds. An example below comes from an Instagram page dedicated to mixed-race babies. The purpose of this page is to spread diversity across the world. However, some people can easily misinterpret this content as participating in mixed babies fetishization. If people do not heavily consume this type of content, it can shift people’s perceptions of other racial groups and stop racial biases.

Source

Bedi, Sonu. “Sexual Racism: Intimacy as a Matter of Justice.” The Journal of Politics, vol. 77, 4, 2015, pp. 998–1011, https://doi.org/10.1086/682749. Accessed 14 Apr. 2022.