A right to family privacy is considered a cornerstone of American life, and yet access to it is apportioned by race. Our notion of the “racialization of privacy” refers to the phenomenon that family privacy, including the freedom to create a family uninhibited by law, pressure, and custom, is delimited by race. Building upon racial formation theory, this article examines three examples: the Native American boarding school system (1870s to 1970s), eugenic laws and practices (early/mid 1900s), and contemporary deportation. Analysis reveals that state-sponsored limitations on family privacy is a racial project that shapes the racial state. Performing an ideological genealogy with our cases, this article makes three contributions: it illustrates how the state leverages policies affecting families to define national belonging; it reveals how access to family privacy is patterned by race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, and national origin; and it distills how Whiteness and a national racial hierarchy are socially constructed and maintained over time. With the racialization of privacy, we identify how the state seeks to reproduce institutionalized White supremacy and the effects this has on families. We argue that families are the linchpin in state-sponsored racial projects that construct the nation and that the racialization of privacy, as a form of inequality, is a defining characteristic of the color-line.

中文翻译：

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隐私的种族化：作为家庭事务的种族形成


家庭隐私权被认为是美国人生活的基石，但获得家庭隐私权的机会却是按种族分配的。我们所说的“隐私种族化”是指家庭隐私，包括不受法律、压力和习俗约束的组建家庭的自由，受到种族限制的现象。本文以种族形成理论为基础，探讨了三个例子：美洲原住民寄宿学校系统（1870 年代至 1970 年代）、优生法律和实践（1900 年代初/中期）以及当代驱逐出境。分析表明，国家支持的对家庭隐私的限制是一个塑造种族国家的种族项目。本文通过我们的案例进行意识形态谱系，做出了三个贡献：它说明了国家如何利用影响家庭的政策来定义民族归属感；它揭示了家庭隐私的获取方式如何受到种族、民族、性别、阶级、性取向和国籍的影响；它提炼出白人和国家种族等级制度是如何随着时间的推移而在社会上构建和维持的。随着隐私的种族化，我们确定了国家如何寻求重现制度化的白人至上及其对家庭的影响。我们认为，家庭是国家资助的建设国家的种族项目的关键，而隐私的种族化作为一种​​不平等形式，是肤色界限的一个决定性特征。