Supreme Court rhetoric linked polygamy to racialized Asiatic and African family norms

Evidence

Moreover, if monogamous marriage was the foundation “[u]pon [which] society may be said to be built,” children raised in polygamy would be dangerously ignorant of the “social relations and social obligations and duties” associated with monogamy. Their understanding of the “family,” that critical unit of society and democracy, would be shaped by the norms and values more familiar to “Asiatic and … African people.” — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 142

Categorization

• XREF: This racial-familial coding of the polygamist other parallels the dress-politics and moral-panic material in the Immodesty article on sumptuary law. — connects to: Islam became racialized in American law through anti-polygamy discourse even without Muslims as defendants — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 141; The Supreme Court framed monogamy as the racial foundation of democratic society; Supreme Court racialized Mormons by associating polygamy with Asian and African peoples — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 328 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The US Supreme Court itself declared polygamy ‘Asiatic’ and ‘African’ in origin. #corroborates (0.98) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 328
• Supreme Court racialized Mormons by associating polygamy with Asian and African peoples #expands (0.97) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 328
• Federal courts treated polygamous family norms as racial threats to democratic society #corroborates (0.90)
• The Supreme Court framed monogamy as the racial foundation of democratic society #expands (0.88)
• Legal vilification of polygamy racialized non-monogamous religious groups as foreign barbarians #expands (0.86) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 147
• Polygamy jurisprudence racialized Islam by treating the practice as foreign and treasonable #expands (0.85)
• Court condemnation of polygamy treated Christianity and whiteness as joint markers of civilization. #expands (0.85) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 147
• The racial state shapes subject formation by defining who can form families and marry #expands (0.75)