The Debate Over Interracial Couples

For centuries human beings have been on a quest for love. As time has passed, this search has lead to mixing of races and resulted in interracial relationships, both long-term couples and casual dating.

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

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay, and red, and he placed them on separate

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.

Statistics for 2013’s interatrial marriages according to Wendy Wang’s article, ‘Interracial marriage: Who is ‘marrying out’?’ claims that there was a record-high of 12% of newlyweds whom married someone of a different race however this is excluding Hispanic to non-Hispanic relations. In addition to these result there is also a study on the races who are more likely to marry out, and the research shows that blacks and whites are the less likely candidates have a spouse whose race was different from their

Before this historical time period, cultures and its respective human constituents lived in isolated bubbles, mating and reproducing only with each other. Thus, there was no need to address racial differences since essentially everybody appear the same. But, after these physical land barriers were bypassed, it was necessary to address the apparent physical and relevant differences that existed between the various countries and geographic locations. In doing so, the differences, as seen through the diversity of the people, needed to be understood and given meaning in order to distinguish and classify. Although this need to distinguish and classify may have a multitude of causes, I personally believe that the driving force was the human tendency to create divisions. Humans tend to create divisions on the basis of establishing power and dominance, in order to enact a social hierarchy. Humans in the past, and until present day, have always created hierarchical structures on the basis of some term that creates divisions amongst themselves (i.e.: race, gender, religion, sexuality). It just so happens that race (via skin tone, hair texture, etc.) is now the most prominent basis in which humans can outwardly categorize other human beings. This arises from the fact that human beings are so diverse in nature, and race is the easiest form in which to classify people via phenotypic attributes. Furthermore, humans continue to maintain an us versus them mentality. This most directly relates to one of the most fundamental basis of race-thinking which is essentially a power struggle. Given the current context of the world, diversity and human contact is nearly impossible to escape. Subsequently, humans submit to the desire of stratification in order to make sense of this apparent human diversity. As a result, race-thinking

While there are many different types of interracial relationships, as stated by Rose M. Kreider, in America most people understand interracial relationships to be between black and white couples. Now, the question is: why are these relationships such a big deal? Why are they so controversial? The answer to this question varies upon who one talks to, most importantly what community. For example, in David Crary’s article, he interviewed Kelley Kenney, a black woman from Pennsylvania. She was quoted saying that the “older black folks” in her community didn’t want people to “forget where they came from.” Students at the University of South Florida had a similar belief. They believed that the reason why interracial relationships were such a problem was because the

twenty first century the white culture felt that if interracial relationships increased the white people would become minorities due to the mixtures of race, which was called "browning of America."

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).

Over the years in America’s history there has been an increase in interracial relationship statistics. Passed research gives many reason for this increase but also gives reason for why the increase is at such a small percentage. In addition to that passed research studies individual’s views on the topics, which in turn assesses society’s perception on interracial dating and racial identity. Some studies such as Childs with Black women ignored the reasons for the perceived behavior of Black women compared to White women. In the current study the following questions will be explored: How does political conservatism influence individuals viewpoint on interracial relationships versus intraracial relationships? Does racial identity or an individual’s perception of another race correlate with their perception of interracial dating? Do interracial relationships cause unnecessary or more conflict than would be caused in an intraracial relationship? I hypothesize that political conservatism will negatively influence an individual’s viewpoint on interracial relationships versus intraracial relationships. I hypothesize that there is a correlation between racial identity and an individual’s perception of another race. I also hypothesize that interracial relationships do cause more conflict than intraracial

Diversity in cultures throughout the world can often create obstacles when developing relationships. However, despite years of desegregation, social and cultural differences still exist. One of the differences that still exist is the institution of marriage. This is especially true when it comes to the topic of interracial marriages. Which has been described as a marriage between members of two different races. Even though, it has not been that long ago since interracial marriage has been made legal throughout the entire United States. It continues to be one of the biggest conflicts in society today, considering everyone has their different viewpoints on the topic. Since these types of marriages are considered to be an exception rather than a norm, many couples continue to encounter various issues.

People who date and socialize with people of different racial groups frequently experience negative reactions. Many of the disapproving messages come from people of their own racial group. They scoff and make fun of the idea that they are dating someone with a different tone of skin or ethnic background. According to a poll taken in

Lewis and Ford begin by pointing out the Civil Rights movement that began in the 1960’s which acted as a jumpstart to the more diverse institution that we now know today. The article conveys that although there is a significant difference between interracial marriage and interracial dating – there has been a tremendous increase in both in the past several decades. A study and chart done by the U.S Census Bureau in 2004 shows, that there was a 26% increase of White/Other marriages from the 1980’s to the 1990’s; where in the 1990’s to the 2000’s there was a significant 72% increase. The chart also shows a drop in interracial marriages where Black/White marriages from the 1980’s to the 1990’s was 38% to a smaller 31% from the 1990’s to the 2000’s. The chart seems to show a significant trend in dating habits over the last few years, which is something that I was not expecting to see.

In the multi cultural society that we live in today, relationships from all different cultures are welcomed. The mixing of races has been going on for hunherds of years and dates back to the unfortunate years of slavery. Where the mixing of white and black was a taboo, but still carried out by the white slave masters on their black maids/ slaves.

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).