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92 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 105 (2017)
Romantic Discrimination and Children

handle is hein.journals/chknt92 and id is 119 raw text is: ROMANTIC DISCRIMINATION AND CHILDREN SOLANGEL MALDONADO* In recent years, social scientists have used online dating sites to study the role of race in the dating and marriage market. Their research has re- vealed a racialized and gendered hierarchy that disproportionately excludes African-American men and women and Asian-American men. For decades, other researchers have studied the risks and outcomes for children who grow up in single-parent homes as compared to children raised by married parents. This Essay explores how racial preferences in the dating market potentially affect the children of middle-class African-American mothers who lack or reject opportunities to marry.' What is the relationship between racial preferences in the dating and marriage market and children's access to resources and opportunities? Do racial preferences in the dating and marriage market increase the likelihood that children of middle-class Afri- can-American mothers will be raised in homes with fewer resources and limited access to opportunities available to other children with similarly educated parents? If so, what, if anything, should the law do to minimize racial preferences' effects on children? I. RACIAL PREFERENCES IN THE DATING AND MARRIAGE MARKET Americans' acceptance of interracial intimacy has increased dramati- cally in just one generation. In 1987, less than 50% of Americans approved of African-Americans and Whites dating. By 2013, 87% of all Americans, and 96% of 18-29 year olds, approved of marriages (not just dating) be- tween African-Americans and Whites.2 Yet, despite our approval of inter- * Joseph M. Lynch Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law. 1. Legal scholars have examined how racial preferences in the foster care and adoption system harm children. See e.g., Solangel Maldonado, Discouraging Racial Preferences in Adoptions, 39 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 1415 (2006); Richard Banks, The Color of Desire: Fulfilling Adoptive Parents' Racial Preferences Through Discriminatory State Action, 107 YALE L.J. 875 (1998); ELIZABETH BARTHOLET, FAMILY BONDS: ADOPTION, INFERTILITY, AND THE NEW WORLD OF CHILD PRODUCTION (Beacon Press, 1999). 2. Jeffrey Passel et al., Marrying Out: One-in-Seven New Marriages is Interracial or Inter- ethnic, PEW RES. CTR. (June 4, 2010), http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/755-marrying- out.pdf; Frank Newport, In U.S., 87% Approve of Black- White Marriage, vs. 4% in 1958, GALLUP (July 25, 2013). 105

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