The contrast between an adoption case in 1952, in which a black couple was not permitted to adopt a mixed race child under Louisiana law, and the 1990 ruling by an Illinois court that “race should presumptively play no role in determining custody arrangements,” is a sharp one.

But, as Kennedy says in Interracial Intimacies, equality under the law does not mean that society treats interracial relationships without considering race.

Social workers tend to place children with couples of the same race. Many mixed race couples meet resistance or at least doubtful glances from friends and relatives. Even in the classroom, students who see themselves as race-blind may waver, on further examination.

Kennedy recalls a discussion in which a student condemned racial discrimination of all forms. Kennedy had asked the student if he would criticize a friend for specifying a mate of a certain race in a personal ad. The class, which had previously been engaged in a lively debate, suddenly became quiet and thoughtful.

“I don’t pretend to have it all figured out,” Kennedy says. “Although the laws have changed and the past forty years have seen an uptick in the amount of racial relationships, custom is particularly resistant to change.”

In a society that publicly criticizes racism, even as it is privately practiced, interracial relationships still stir up controversy—one doesn’t need to look further than the O.J. Simpson trial to see the social anxieties that commonly surround interracial sex.

Nevertheless, Kennedy says, “People are more used to interracial relationships, more accepting.”

“There is still certainly opposition and suspicion, but I think that many, many Americans accept interracial relations the same way they accept intraracial relations.”

—Staff writer Kristi L. Jobson can be reached at jobson@fas.harvard.edu.