America 's Acceptance Of Interracial Marriages

Before the Civil Rights Movement, everything was segregated and one race was viewed as more powerful than all the other races. If there were interracial couples before the movement, the power of the institutions would easily punish them and justified it through religion and supremacy (Westlaw, 2015). I believe interracial couples are key to becoming a society that is more open minded and diverse. If people saw that we have many more commonalities than differences, than they would be more open to having a diverse community. Implications for the target group after this law was overruled was another step towards equality between races. All races were now free to marry outside their race without being arrested and kicked out of their homes. It is baffling to think about the extent some people would go through to destroy a happy couple because their skin color does not match. I believe our country has come a long way since Loving v Virginia, but we still have improvements to make to somehow end racism. Loving v Virginia is important because it implies that all races are equal. Before this ruling, it was looked down upon for a Caucasian to marry outside their race since they were the “superior” race, but now it is much more common than anyone would have figured it would be 50+ years ago. Racial color blindness is key when discussing Loving v Virginia and interracial marriages. If someone were to say they do not see color, then it would completely disregard the struggle that the Loving couple (and other interracial couples) faced. Just like we discussed in class, racial color blindness tends to disregard what African Americans have gone through and ignores institutional racism. It is very easy for people who have not been discriminated against to say they do not see color, I believe these people tend to forget about institutional racism since it does not affect them (Mulder,

Interracial marriage was a very tough topic not very long ago, and most of the nation has grown to accept it. The Supreme Court delivered a verdict in favor for couples to marry interracially in 1967, they stated that the laws to prevent interracial marriage was nothing more than an attempt "to maintain white supremacy" (Stoddard 413). The United States Supreme court concluded that laws against interracial marriage served no purpose other than discrimination, and that they should be eliminated. The gay rights movement has become very similar to controversy about interracial marriage. The problem is of whether or not same sex marriages should be legitimate in the United States. In the aforementioned case, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage

Interracial marriage has traditionally been viewed as a means of expressing a hatred of oneself, of escaping something in one’s culture or self that one no longer wants to identify with. Jacki Thompson Rand describes the outcome of this phenomenon in an essay on her experience as the child of an interracial marriage. She explains how her mother married a white man in an effort to make herself more white, and therefore more legitimate: “My mother 's marriage to my father was a racial love

I believe laws prohibiting interracial marriage and laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are similar. Marriage is a unique bond between a man and a woman, who agree to live together and fulfill each others moral and physical demands. However, such a bondage between a woman and a woman or a man and

Historically, interracial families’ were a taboo in the United States and many other countries. In the 1960’s, the civil rights movement caused the country to move

"-- we are all complicit and we all carry a certain responsibility for America's original sin: racism." -- David Bedrick, The Huffington Post, 10 April 2015

Likewise, the rules regarding interracial marriages stemmed from slavery as well. The book, Virginia Hasn't Always Been for Lovers: Interracial Marriage Bans and the Case of Richard and Mildred Loving, discusses the landmark legal case Loving v Virginia. As a bit of history, the book says, “In the 1600s… to ensure that the line between master and slave would be indelible, the colonists enacted a number of laws. Not least among them were the regulations that prohibited interracial marriage” (Newbeck, 23). So, the laws that were put into place regarding interracial marriages were enacted in order to maintain the power dynamic between black and white people. There was no other logical reason why the ban was in place, other than to continue to oppress the black community and keep them from attaining power and status within the

Can you imagine not being able to share your life with the person you love because of the color of your skin? Well, this was the case for those who resided in Virginia decades ago. Interracial marriages were not allowed in Virginia and sixteen other states due to the adoption of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The sole purpose of this act was to completely prohibit a "white person" marrying other than another "white person". Marriage licenses were not issued until the issuing official is content with the applications statements as to if their races are "correct". Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman, was not going to let the state of Virginia stop them from being married, so they left

In the year 1924, in the state of Virginia, the Racial Integrity Act was put into law (See Appendix C). There is a very rich and mindful history on why this law was passed. In fact, it was not the first-time Virginia prohibited marriage between races. This was done when Virginia was one of the thirteen colonies. This law banning all inter-racial marriage was first passed in 1691. Also, that by 1913 30 out of the 48 states at the time had a law like this. Also during that time of the passage a group called Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America that lobbied for this bill to be

Virginia 16 states had laws regarding interracial marriage whether it was not permitted or had specifications on how large of a fraction African American or another race a person was. However that all changed after the decision made by the Supreme Court. The laws prohibiting interracial marriage were invalidated and ruled unconstitutional, meaning adults in the United States of America could marry the person they chose. In 1967 3% of people recently married were married to a spouse of a different race. In 2015 the number of recently married interracial couples rose to 17%.

On June 2, 1958, Mildred Jeter, and Richard Loving got married in the District of Columbia and then returned to Virginia shortly after. However, they were in violation of Virginia code 20-54, which declared marriages between “white and colored persons” unlawful, as well as code 20-58, which made it unlawful to go out of state to marry with the intention to return and cohabit as husband and wife (Coleman, Loving v Virginia). Shortly after their marriage,

To begin with, interracial marriage is defined as “a form of exogamy that involves a marriage between spouses who belong to

The two articles used were “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation” (Lewis, Ford- Robinson, 2010) and “Marital Dissolution among Interracial Couples” (Zhang, Van Hook, 2009). The first article “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States through Differential Assimilation”, spoke about the unprecedented changes that our society is going though in the 21st century.

All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited.

The success of an interracial marriage, to withstand all the prejudices in society, needs one major ingredient, and that is love. One of the hardest things an interracial couple has to deal with is acceptance from both their families and society. Interestingly, though, Interracial marriages tend to last longer than same race ones because people going into interracial marriages are prepared for a rocky road and are prepared to stick with it, while same race couples may have not experienced that same adversity, and at the first sign of struggle, back out of the marriage. This obviously tells us that whether the marriage is a success or not does not depend upon the races of the partners, or at least not in the way everyone thinks it does. It is obvious that people in general are becoming more open minded and accepting of interracial marriages, however, there still are many social taboos that prevent people from being in such a marriage. Society tends to concentrate on skin color when