Marriage Is Not All Black And White

For a large part of the twentieth century, interracial couples on TV shows were few and far between. Given that anti-miscegenation laws (the laws against inter-breeding of people considered to be of different racial types) remained on the books of U.S. states well into the 1960s, entertainment executives deemed mixed couples too controversial for television. And even now, in current times, the majority of current films presuppose the abnormality of interracial intimacy, leaving little room for alternate stories of harmony. Many of today's films instead poke fun at interracial relationships and depict solely the difficulties faced, the awkward encounters, and the negative effects of participating in one.

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

For years there have been forbidden love and marriage in the history of the United States, I decided to write a reflection on my thoughts views, fact findings and information regarding biracial marriages and segregation laws that were discriminatory in history. I read the short story about the Loving family and their pursuit to the Supreme Court in 1967, I thought of my own family history and realized that my paternal grandparents would’ve been prosecuted had they lived in Virginia or any other state that prohibited bi-racial marriages in the 1900s.

Love has a lot to do with race it has a way of bringing out both good and bad in some people and unfortunately in some cases the issues of love and race are taken too far. In today’s society it is not as much of an issue to see interracial couples together as it used to be in the past, but that does not mean that it is not still an issue for some people. Throughout the semester we have studied different ways that not only in the cases of love but also family, friendship, and community are affected by racial issues both past and present, which only goes to show that racism still exists in our world today despite all of the progressions that we have made towards fixing the issue.

Television and film is a huge part of American culture. As the “face” of America changes, it is expected for our media to reflect it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Since the beginning of film, minorities have been misrepresented and underrepresented. While there has been a significant increase in minority actors since the beginning of film, there is still a huge underrepresentation present in American television and film. Our media needs to reflect out diverse country. This topic is always important and relevant because race, gender, and sexuality, in general, have been issues throughout the growth of television and film. Even today, minorities are subject to

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.

During the process of producing a television series, the demand for the producers to introduce their characters with only their highlighted traits make it impossible for viewers to gain a deep understanding of the community that the characters represent. One of the stereotypic traits that is usually seen on movies and television shows is societal difference that each race is placed into. Michael Omi in his article In Living Color: Race and American Culture stated that “in contemporary television and film, there is a tendency to present and equate racial minority groups and individuals with specific social problems” (546). There are many films and television shows found today that ground racial minorities into a specific social problems that are related to the color of their skin. It can be inferred from the current popular culture that this stereotype still persists.

The film industry’s portrayal of African American people consists of countless stereotypes and inaccuracies. These depictions lead to an innumerable amount of misrepresentations about the African American community. As the latest wave of black films begins to dawn, the clearer the images become of a collective people. Using my personal experiences as a mixed woman of color, as well as including my academic strengths and goals, and points of view regarding various black films, the content of this paper will examine the representation and stereotypes that can be seen in African American Hollywood.

The first black president, the world’s best golfer, or twins that we grew up watching; Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Tia and Tamera Mowry, besides from being in the light of superstardom, they are each a child of a interracial marriage. In the 21st century there are approximately 1.6 million interracial relationships or interethnic marriages, with the marriages making up 3% (Troy, Lewis-Smith, & Laurenceau, 2006). Interracial relationships over generations have changed from the way society has viewed them. As early as the 1600’s legislation has been banning black and white interracial marriages, and this law has stayed in place until 1967, and Alabama being the last place to maintain the law until 2000 (Troy, Lewis-Smith, & Laurenceau, 2006).Years ago white women and black men were severely punished for engaging in sexual relations, however the white male power was not threatened by exploiting black women nor by a black woman having their baby (Childs, 2005). In contrast, a white woman who gave birth to a black man’s baby, would be considered polluting the purity of the white race; thereby including racial boundaries and the power of white man (Childs, 2005). Irony as times progressed in 1993, there were 246,000 black-white marriages an 163,000 of these were between black men and white women (Childs, 2005).

The film Our Family Wedding illustrated the diversity among and between families. The film depicted the views of different generations within a family and how an interracial marriage affected them differently. The film explores new contemporary marriage trends and challenges traditional family roles and marriage trends. This paper will explore different demographic trends as it relates to the social constructs of class, race, and gender, survey the recent trends and changes towards contemporary marriage, and study the changes in the family relationships within the film. Conclusively, this film analysis will use textbook concepts and examples in the movie to establish a framework for the diverse family system and the changing marriage.

Interracial marriages are still considered taboo in many countries in the world and even in the United States. While the opportunity to marry whoever one desires is a reality in America, it is not always common and sometime frowned upon in our communities. Much progress has been made as a country to allow interracial marriages to be successful, but the American population has had difficulty accepting the legal development that has taken place in our nation. Interracial Marriage has been fought throughout our history but is not an unethical relationship in fact it creates avenues to expand our diversity as a human race.

Racial stereotypes in films have typically reflected societies reality. How individuals are able to come to understand what it means to be a black in America is shaped by the social construct of cultural identity. As both reality and social construct shifts, so does Black representation in film. What has not shifted is the fact that we are still living in a white dominated society, where much of the narrative belongs to and is determined by Rich, White Males and where black stereotypes still exist and are continually reinforced in films. Hollywood has typically followed this trend through the use of white directors, discussions of diversity, or even in its selection of Oscar nominees (Donnelly 2016). As a result, many “mainstream” films look to target young males and females, for example, films like The Avengers or the Twilight vampire series. Taking all of this into account, Black film has transcended over time to change the way African Americans are viewed and take control of their own narrative. However as independent Black films seek to influence this change and look to challenge the dominate of White Hollywood, directors of Black films have may find themselves controlling the conversation by either doing the work of talking to a black audience or are looking to talk to general (mainly White) audience about black issues.

Kevin Rodney Sullivan's 2005 movie is an overt comedy that, while not ignoring the race issues altogether, uses them more frequently for humor than to illustrate serious points. Both film’s premises are about the same situation of an interracial marriage.

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 law forbidding interracial marriage was terminated in 1967, and in the midst of rapid racial change, one fact is unmistakable: A growing number of Americans are showing that we all can get along by forming relationships and families that cross all color lines. In the past couple decades, the number of interracial marriages has increased dramatically. Interracial dating and marrying is described as the dating or marrying of two people of different races, and it is becoming much more common to do so. Thirty years ago, only one in every 100 children born in the United States was of mixed race. Today, the number is one in 19. In some states, such as California and Washington, the number is closer to one in 10 (Melting Pot).