"In my mind, we are all humans": Notes on the public management of black-white interracial romantic relationships

Using the results of 19 in-depth qualitative interviews and our own observa tions, we suggest that one interpersonal skill involved in maintaining succ essful interracial Black-white romantic relationships can be the management of public harassment. Specifically, this refers to the management of evalu ative, hostile, and discriminatory actions and reactions that couples recei ve from strangers in public places. Our informants (10 women, 9 men), all l iving in the Midwest, suggested that, at the very least, a continuing inter racial relationship must learn to deal with many forms of public harassment . Another theme from the reports of our informants concerned the variety of ways that public harassment was dealt with. Our informants (1) reported th at harassment behavior fell into the three main categories, (2) detailed th e management strategies and attitudes they used to deal with harassment, an d (3) indicated how important such public harassment was fur the partner ch oice of interracial couples and, symbolically, fur the society at large.