I argue that identity battlegrounds may emerge around emotionally charged and concrete but heavily symbolic issues that densely link to key ideas in the ideological systems of two or more conflicting movements. The battleground concept elucidates why some debates become polarized, and why it is so difficult to arbitrate them. Because of its strong symbolic implications, the intermarriage discourse became a “battleground of identity” for the conflict between two competing racial ideologies: integrationism and separatism.
Writers used the issue of intermarriage to negotiate conceptions of racial identity and the politics of racial emancipation. Drawing on an analysis of 234 letters, published predominantly between 19, I examine how African American writers discussed black-white intermarriage. This article utilizes a sample of letters to the editor from African American newspapers to investigate racial identity formation.
