The growth of the U.S. population with origins in Latin America and Asia since the 1960s has sparked debates about how those in the “racial middle” fit into the U.S. racial landscape. Romantic partnering, both within and across ethnic and racial lines, serves as a key indicator of the salience of social boundaries and offers insights into these debates. This talk draws from a larger mixed-methods study that follows a representative sample of Asian and Latino children of immigrants over 22 years, illustrating how intertwined cultural and structural forces—often shifting over the life course—shape coethnic, panethnic, and interracial romantic pairings. While many second-generation adults accept dominant hierarchies, our analysis challenges the idea that Asians and Latinos are equally placed in the “racial middle” of the U.S. racial structure. Moreover, even within the same ethnic group, gendered and racialized experiences lead to divergent romantic outcomes, underscoring that the children of post-1965 immigrants are incorporating into the U.S. racial structure in complex and varied ways.