Racial, ethnic, and national boundaries: Sexual intersections and symbolicinteractions

Sex and race are strained, if not strange, bedfellows. Sexual depictions an d denigrations of racial, ethnic, and national "others" and the regulation of in-group sexual behavior are important mechanisms by which ethnic bounda ries are constructed, maintained, and defended Race, ethnicity, and the nat ion are sexualized, and sexuality is racialized, ethnicized, and nationaliz ed. The sexual systems that prop up ethnic boundaries and define ethnic ide ntities and communities tend to be inherently conservative blueprints for e thnosexual living. These systems stress endogamy, heterosexuality, and repr oduction under the rubric of traditional, often patriarchal family life for ethnic group members and tend to demonize and denigrate the sexuality of t hose outside ethnic boundaries or of those within ethnic communities who do not conform to heteronormative, heteroconventional models of sexuality. I present several examples of the intersections of race, ethnicity, nationali sm, and sexuality/ies from U.S. and international settings, and I argue tha t the symbolic interaction between ethnicity and sexuality is central to th eir mutual constitution.