page_title: Sexual racism
section_title: Challenges to attitudes
hierarchical_section_title: Sexual racism / Attitudes towards interracial relationships / Challenges to attitudes
caption_attribution_description: S&amp;Q Silent March 2
context_page_description: Sexual racism is an individual's sexual preference for specific races. It is an inclination towards or against potential sexual or romantic partners on the basis of perceived racial identity.
  Although discrimination among partners based on perceived racial identity is characterized by some as a form of racism, it is presented as a matter of preference by others.
  The evolution of sexual racism in the US can be viewed by looking at its history, where the abolition of slavery and the Reconstruction Era had significant impacts on interracial mixing. Public opinion of interracial marriage and relationships have increased in positivity in the last 50 years. In 1968, 73% of US citizens disapproved of interracial marriage, whereas this figure dropped to 17% by 2007.
context_section_description: Sexual racism exists in all sexual communities across the globe. The prevalence of interracial couples demonstrate how attitudes have changed in the last 50 years. A case that has perhaps received heightened publicity is that of Mildred and Richard Loving. The couple lived in Virginia yet had to marry outside the state due to the anti-miscegenation laws present in nearly half of the US states in 1958. Once married, the pair returned to Virginia, and were both arrested in their home for the infringement of the Racial Integrity Act, and each sentenced to a year in prison. Prior to the repeal of these laws in 2000, several attempts were made to void the sentence, ultimately the couple resorted to relocation to avoid further prejudice. 
  Around a similar time was the controversy surrounding Seretse and Ruth Khama. Seretse was the chief of an eminent Botswanan tribe, and Ruth an English student. The pair married in 1948 but experienced frequent discrimination from the onset of the relationship, including Seretse's removal from his tribal responsibilities as chief. For nearly 10 years, Seretse and Ruth lived as exiles in Britain, as the racism towards their relationship remained strong. British officials hoped that their asylum in the country would reduce their desire to continue the marriage. Once the couple were allowed to return home in 1956, they became prominent figures in the movement for racial and social justice, contributing to Seretse's election as president of Botswana in 1966. Later, they both continued to fight laws surrounding interracial marriage.
  More recent examples portray the increasingly accepting attitudes of the majority to interracial relationships and marriage. In 2013, Bill de Blasio was elected as Mayor of New York City, accompanied by his wife, Chirlane McCray. The pair are one of the first interracial couples to stand in power side by side. Both de Blasio and McCray are active political figures, and although they are not exempt from racial discrimination, the attitudes of the world to interracial marriage are much more positive and optimistic than in previous decades. Across much of the world, it is ever increasingly the situation that interracial couples can live, marry and have children without prosecution that was previously rife, due to major changes in law along with reductions in discriminatory attitudes. Sexual racism also exists in the heterosexual community in online dating.
caption: Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray with their two children in 2012, attending a silent march.
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