Loving Lessons: White Supremacy, Loving v. Virginia, and Disproportionality in the Child Welfare System
Abstract
This Article looks back at the anti-miscegenation laws that were at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia to reveal what they teach us about the current overrepresentation of black children in the American child welfare system. It is widely accepted that antimiscegenation laws worked to preserve white supremacy — particularly, the superiority of white people to blacks — but these laws also worked to forestall the creation of interracial families. Moreover, laws banning interracial marriage were said to prevent children from suffering harm caused by race mixing. Thus, these laws were viewed by supporters as preventing child abuse. By focusing on the harm — or “damage” — of being biracial, these laws foreshadowed the pervasive disproportionality in the child welfare system today. (Author Abstract)
Description
item.page.type
Article
item.page.format
Keywords
child abuse, prevention, child protection, law, biracial, discrimination, legal opinion
Citation
Hill, Leah H. (2018). Loving Lessons: White Supremacy, Loving v. Virginia, and Disproportionality in the Child Welfare System. Fordham Law Review, 86(6), 2727-2737.