Mixed Race History : The Color of Water

Forbidden Love: The Hidden History of Mixed-Race America is a text that highlights the racial progression of the United States. In a span of over 400 years, the author Gary Nash cites many instances of interracial relationships. This abundance of examples serves to show a contrast in America between government measures and social occurrences. A story such as that of John Rolfe and Pocahontas is used to show how "[their union] could have become the beginning of an open racially intermixed United States" (6). Very soon after, however, events such as those surrounding Sam Houston proved to show that interracial relationships have quickly been discounted from common history lessons. In an effort to illustrate racial progression Nash also cites examples of individuals such as Frederick Douglass. It is important to note that, yes Douglass had first married to a white woman, but this should not overshadow the accomplishments of Douglass 's life. Lastly, Gary Nash writes about "the boundary-crossing revolution". Music is cited as a big factor of this 'boundary crossing '. In the end, a vast majority of these stories are not freely told in a classroom setting or within communities.

In “Say Yes” by Tobias Wolff we have a story of a young married couple whose names are Anna and her husband David who start to have a discussion about “whether white people should marry black people” (Wolff 632). The conversation starts out really innocent but then they both start to disagree. Through the story we get to see how each person’s beliefs can affect their perspective on a person. Specifically, racism and prejudice has shaped David’s view on the world yet, his wife doesn’t understand were this is coming from.

Abraham Maslow’s theory of “Hierarchy of Needs” consists of 5 things humans need. From top to bottom, top being the more complex needs and the bottom the more basic needs is; Self-Actualization, esteem, love/belonging, safety, and physiological. Self-actualization is the level of need that pertains to what a person’s full potential is and realizing that potential. It is broken up as morality, spontaneity, and lack of prejudice. Based on the two texts I read, The Color of Water by James McBride and The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley, I consider both James McBride and Malcolm X “self-actualized” men to a certain extent.

What identifies you? If it was not for one’s race, religion, gender, or atmosphere of their surroundings what would their identity be? To answer that one may need to know what identity means; identity is what make you as a person, the thing that may define a person like race, gender, and religion. Identity can be closely correlated with The Color of Water by characters always thriving to find his or her own identity. In the memoir The Color of Water by James McBride, the author has trouble finding his own identity and understanding his mother by trying to find his own race, how religion means different things in the world, and the behavior along with the atmosphere of their surroundings.

•        A news reporter writing a newspaper article or blog entry about the racial group

An entire century has gone by and discrimination is still an issue faced by individuals with dark complexion. Reyita has felt these hardships her entire life so much that she chose to marry a white man to “improve the race by whitening”(5). This is similar to what we see nowadays with the current hot topic of immigration regulations. Immigrants from all across the world form fixed marriages to gain citizenship. This improves the livelihood of illegal immigrants in a similar manner that Reyita sought to improve the lifestyle of her future children; by trying to fix the “problem” of their skin color. The notion that the color of one's skin determines their status in the book Reyita, is a fascinating one that I believe is still around today.

Race is a classification system that divides people into groups based on descent, ethnicity, culture, geography, history, language and/or socioeconomic affiliation. Race can be related to history. In history, there are multiple perspectives on every issue. In race, there are multiple components to get the whole picture and multiple perspectives. Mark T. Gilderhus, author of History and Historians and expert on the subject, states in his book "History as a field of knowledge is broad given that there are virtually infinite possibilities to history inquiry.you can fill in the blanks that's what makes history come alive is that you may seek to research your interests. " Professor John Ulloa, instructor of history and anthropology, states

“You wouldn’t have married me if i’d been black?” This quote by Anne in Toby Wolff’s story “Say Yes” starts an argument between a husband and wife on the topic of interracial marriage. Differences between people, whether it is racial or gender can cause conflict and deep wounds in relationships.

Is interracial marriage the key to healing the racial strife in America? Not according to one author who also served as a speech writer to President Clinton. He states, “…while interracial marriage is a powerful symbol of love transcending racial barriers, it does not have a substantial effect on racism” (Liu, 1998).

The causes of interracial couple conflicts are stemmed from many sources. One source in which conflicts arise comes from members of society. The views on non-Blacks and Blacks interracial marriage is frowned upon. Although interracial marriage is more common members of society are not fully in agreement with these mixed unions and there are opposing views on the idea of society acceptance of this union. For example, in the article by Batson et al. research findings examined explanations that social relationships and arrogance in American society intensely suggest a strong Black and non-Black racial gap. The implication for Blacks in American society is that interracial marriages with Whites will continue to be less common than they are for other non-Black racial minorities (2006). Discrimination against interracial couples doesn’t just end there, discrimination occurs at restaurants and other public areas, people stare as if they had just seen a ghost. Sixty-four percent of African American and Caucasian interracial couples experience undesirable public reaction. This negative response can be moderately minor, such as stares, but can also take the form of derogatory jokes and comments, and subpar services (Leslie & Letiecq, 2004).

In this article, the writer described how the idea of interracial marriage is changing over times. In the beginning, he gave an example about interracial marriage that happened in 1960s between Ann Dunham and Barack Obama which led to born Barack Obama Jr. who became the president of United-States in 2008. Then, the writer was collecting survey data from 1960s that showed that the 42 percent of northern and three-fourths southern having the same idea of banning interracial marriage. After that, he moved to the twenty- first century which showed the idea of interracial dating and marriage became different from that in the twenty century. It became more common and acceptable. Also, he collected surveys from different ages to see how the idea

That my friend is was the pivot of a change for society saw me differently…

To examine and view how cultural studies and interracial marriages are not affected because of adversities. Interracial relationships and marriages have become common in the United States. These individuals that choose to date outside of their race and cultural face day to day adversities in order to have a healthy and successful relationship. The most common issue is the race card that is often utilized to discriminate in these types of relationships. While there are other factors that contributes to adversities of interracial relationships that happens to be the main focus. In interracial relationships regardless of the adversities culturally, in order to successfully work one must fight for their relationship and have undeniable desires

America socially and culturally has come a long way with desegregation, as "one-in-six U.S. newlyweds (17%) were married to a person of a different race or ethnicity in 2015, a more than fivefold increase from 3% in 1967"(Kristen Bialik n.p.). The reason behind this is because about 50 years ago, there were many laws put in place that bans interracial marriage. However, the situation changed when a when a white man and a black woman, the Lovings, "violated Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited interracial marriage. The Lovings were sentenced to a year in prison but they brought their case before the Supreme Court and their love won. In 1967, the justices ruled in their favor in Loving vs. Virginia, thereby invalidating all race-based restrictions on interracial marriage in the United States"(Story Hinckley n.p.). With just one family resisting the laws, it changed the perspective of the whole world as they proved that it was wrong to deny the freedom of marrying whoever you wanted. Although people are slowly trying to become more accepting of different views towards mixed marriage, families dealing with this situation are experiencing negative and positive reactions from society. Children, in particular, show the most concern regarding the impact interracial marriage has on their social and physiological issues.

All throughout the United States it has become a more common occurrence to see an interracial married couple, which supports the idea that race and religion no longer matters in a marriage. This increase of acceptance