Racework

Steinbugler argues that racework is a form of symbolic boundary work (see Symbolic boundary work wiki page).

She defines racework as the routine actions and strategies through which individuals maintain close relationships across lines of racial stratification.

For Steinbugler, boundary work for interracial couples involves creating interracial identities that allow these couples to separate themselves from others' perceptions of them as deviant.

Steinbugler theorizes two types of boundary work used by interracial couples:

1) Exclusionary boundary work: involves partners distancing themselves symbolically from stereotypes associated with interracial intimacy or emphasizing the normalcy of their relationship and downplaying the role of race (e.g., using colorblind language).

White partners, mostly white women, often create exclusionary boundaries to separate themselves from negative images of interracial intimacy.

Colorblind language minimizes the importance of race in their relationship and allows the interracial partners to frame their relationship as positive and legitimate.

2) Inclusionary boundary work: involves partners downplaying or attempting to blur distinctions between themselves and same-race couples (e.g., “we are just a man and a woman in love”).

Although heterosexual interracial couples perform racework, Steinbugler argues that heterosexuality enables family formation and identity work for straight interracial couples (in this way, sexuality becomes a resource). Gay and lesbian interracial couples also do racework but they experience sexuality not as a resource but as an identity that intersects with interraciality in complex and contradictory ways, according to Steinbugler.