On September 17, 1630, a man named Hugh Davis was tied up and whipped in colonial Virginia after being sentenced for a serious crime. His audience was a crowd of Black people. But Davis wasn’t Black – he was white! What was going on?
Davis’ punishment was a warning. According to the Virginia Assembly, Davis was “defiling his body in lying with a negro.” But he wasn’t the last person to be punished for “miscegenation,” or interracial relations.
And it’s for a different reason than you might think.
White supremacy maintains that whiteness is distinct from and superior to Blackness.
So it was fine for white people to rape a Black person. But consensual love shared between two equal partners was dangerous! It showed that white supremacy is a lie and we are all equal. So they made sure to punish ALL interracial lovers harshly.
Cases like 1881’s Pace v. State of Alabama solidified the criminal status of interracial marriage.
While Loving v. Virginia outlawed interracial marriage bans in 1967, Alabama’s anti-miscegenation ban wasn’t repealed until 2000!
Criminalizing interracial love has never been about “purity” – it’s always been about control and maintaining the lie of white supremacy.
We have the right to freely choose whether to love or date interracially. Either way, we deserve to love and to be loved free from the control and punishments of white supremacy!