Interracial couples and the phenomenology of race, place, and space in contemporary England

Zambelli, Elena (2023) Interracial couples and the phenomenology of race, place, and space in contemporary England. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 30 (5). 725–743. ISSN 1547-3384

Abstract

Drawing from ethnographic research in England, this article discusses interracial, Black-white couples’ perceptions and experiences of racism and racial discrimination. Empirically, it enlarges scholarship’s prevailing focus on the effects of anti-Black racism on their social worlds, to an exploration of the relationship between race, place and space. More specifically, it discusses how partners’ differently racialised and gendered subjectivities impact their perceptions of being or not the object of interracial couple-based discrimination in public spaces, their residential choices, and their selection of leisure travel destinations. Use of an intersectional lens and the inclusion of both opposite- and same-sex couples contribute to mitigating the currently underexplored role of social class and sexuality in the shaping of interracial couples’ everyday lives. Theoretically, the article contributes to the study of whiteness as habitus and phenomenology: focusing in particular on how race mediates partners’ spatialised perceptions of dis/comfort and un/safety.