Interracial Marriage

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

The musical Showboat acted as hammer in 1927 because of its ability to revolutionize musical theatre by presenting topics such as racism, interracial romance, and marital heartbreak as well as changing the course of musical theatre.

Interracial families are more prevalent today than they have even been and the number of interracial families are growing each year as people are becoming more accepting of people of other races and rejecting the past. However, interracial families still report dealing with issues such as discrimination. Not everyone has yet to accept and welcome the idea of an interracial family in their own family and neighborhoods. Parents and children who are a part of interracial families must deal with multiple biases, how people act towards them, and developing a healthy identity in a world that is not always ready to accept them as they are.

It was the interracial marriages which made many states change their legislation, lift bans on interracial marriages and made amendments to the existing laws by showing acceptability and leniency to interracial romance. There have been reported cases where individuals from different racial background got married and lost acceptance from both the social groups which made them suffer a great deal. However, over the period of time, their relationship gained acceptance.

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

Richard and Mildred Loving, a biracial couple, changed millions of lives in 1976 when they triumphed in the federal case, “Loving vs. Virginia” at the Supreme Court. Their case ended the anti-miscegenation laws created in the 1930s which outlawed interracial marriages. Nearly fifty years later, the U.S Census shows that there were 2.3 million interracial marriages in 2007 which is seven times the number calculated in 1970. This figure, many would say, is a sign of hope for a society has become more accepting and less racist. But how realistic is that idea? Many minorities still face racism and constant oppression every day of their lives. As our culture is constantly forming and changing, there emerge issues with how we understand race and ethnicity. While the concept of race is simply a social construct, with no real science behind it, its societal repercussions are entirely real due to the challenges that comes with it. This system of classification has progressed through centuries and led to the social, economic, and political prejudice against people of color, and further, has institutionalized racism to and systematized the oppression of these people.

I found my situation very thought-provoking that my family fell within the “51%” of African American kids that were raised by a single mother. Additionally, it was even more interesting that I fell within the “390,000” of black American male that is in an interracial relationship. Furthermore, Black Demographics (n.d.) states that “while black men marry white women at twice the rate of Black women, only 7% of married Black men had White (non-Hispanic) spouses in 2014. About 14% percent of African American men married non-Black or Hispanic women in 2014. It is Asian women who have the highest rates of intermarriage which is twice that of Black men”. As a result, the interracial relationship between black and white Americans has held strong.

Marriage is a right that everyone should have and it shouldn't matter if races marry each other. The law at first was that inter-racial marriage is banned but then the Supreme Court fixed their wrong decision and unbanned it. Making another step towards equality because for the next generation they won't have to deal with this issue. “This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country.” - Lyndon B.

America’s population has become more diverse within the years ethnically and culturally, which created opportunities for individuals from different backgrounds to engage in more romantic relationships. In the past society followed the social norms, with accepting the racial boundaries in dating and marriage. Interracial dating has had consequences that included family rejecting and social ridicule, which is still prevalent today, just not as much.

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.

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

identity for the child's success in growing up in a world that we live in today. Children

In 1967, the US Supreme court ruled that interracial marriages must be recognized in every state. Unfortunately, multiracial families still face discrimination and the children of these marriages are still expected to claim one race (Adams at el., 2013). Multiracial families and the individuals, which these families are comprised face discrimination and prejudices on various levels (i.e. micro, macro).