Towards the end of the film Lincoln, Radical Republican Sen. Thaddeus Stevens returns home to his African-American housekeeper (who doubles as his mistress) with good news: the 13th Amendment, banning slavery, has just passed in Congress. As they lie in bed looking at the document, she expresses a sentiment that encapsulates how the nation's struggle with racism is experienced on a personal level: "You can't bring your housekeeper to the House. I won't give them gossip. This [the Amendment] is enough. This is more than enough for now."
Deliberately, the personal is entwined with the political. But why? Is it important that one of the few egalitarian political voices of that era had a black girlfriend? Did Stevens support racial equality because of his interracial relationship, or was his relationship a natural extension from his views? Perhaps neither. Stevens' personal life was exploited by his opponents to discredit his politics; in the case of the pro-Stevens filmmakers behind Lincoln, his personal life is exploited to bolster the film's characterization of him.
Even in a time when our President is the product of an interracial relationship, people of many different racial and political persuasions seem to believe that dating outside of one's race is done to make a statement. Dissecting this impulse can lead us to a deeper understanding of the link between casual and institutional racism.
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