Title:
"I'm Done Dating White People": Experiences of Intimate Partner Racism by AAPI in Interracial Relationships
Author(s):
Saiesh Srivastava
Author Email:
sfaisal@unca.edu
Department:
SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY
Faculty Mentor(s):
Marcia Ghidina
Abstract / Summary:
Race makes a difference in every sphere of our lives and, unsurprisingly, it affects our intimate relationships as well. The term “intimate partner racism,” coined by Yampolsky et al. (2022) refers to the racism that can occur within romantic relationships and dating. This study aimed to understand how Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) experience, discuss, cope with, and respond to experiences of racism from their intimate partners, and how gender dynamics can affect these interactions. This research hypothesizes that men and women experience similar amounts of intimate partner racism, but live and report the experiences differently as a result of differential gender stereotypes and norms. Five Asian-American women and four Asian-American men were prompted to discuss their experiences dating opposite-sex partners outside of the AAPI diaspora. They were asked to reflect on their experiences of stereotyping, racism, and exotification within their dating lives as well as their mixed-race relationships. Data illuminated patterns in the types of racism that AAPI experience, differential ways in which men and women discuss them, and how/when these experiences are internalized in harmful ways.
Publication Date:
Dec-15-2023
Documents: