The Hardships of Following Your Dreams and Immigration

American attitudes toward interracial marriage illustrate an “awkward historical moment” because after the interracial marriage law changed, one would think black/white marriages are common but they are the least. Over the years, interracial marriages has increased by a few percent, mainly from other races that are not black/white. In America, racism still exist even when laws are changing.

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.

Using the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), Whites’ attitudes towards dating, cohabiting with, marrying, and having children with African Americans and Asian Americans was studied. It was found that 29% of White respondents reject all kinds of relationships with African Americans and Asian Americans, while 31% endorse them. Second, Whites are less willing to marry and start a family within an interracial relationship than to date interracially. These attitudes and behaviors are related to political conservatism, age, gender, education, and region. Third, White women are likely to approve of interracial relationships for other people but not for themselves. White men however, express more willingness to engage in such relationships

Throughout the history of the United States, and for as long as I can remember, racism between Black and White Americans has shown to be a major issue. The history of American racism has likely altered current behaviors and attitudes of each group toward one another, such as the decreases in prejudice and the rise in racial anger.

The formation of pan-ethnic and pan-minority boundaries, as well as intermarriage, also has important implications for changing racial landscapes and race relations of the United States. On one hand, newly emerging racial order along the axes of socioeconomic status and interracial attitudes and relations suggests that Asian American pan-ethnic boundaries may be shifting or being redefined altogether. On the other hand, interracial marriage patterns and the ways in which intermarried individuals discuss their mixed unions reveal that black exceptionalism in the (inter)marriage market is likely to continue.

According to U.S. Census data from 2010, one in 10-or 5.4 million-opposite-sex couples are interracial, a 28% rise since 2000. According to the data, the number of same-sex-couple households in the U.S. was 646,000, up 9% from 2000.

Within a generation, America has seen radical changes in the home. My mother was raised in an era where the nuclear family was the norm, however, in recent years, its has become increasingly acceptable for children to be born out of wedlock. After learning this, the question on my mind, and probably yours, is “what happened to the American family”. June Carbone and Naomi Cahn believe that changes in marriage dynamics are responsible. In the book, Marriage Markets: How Inequality Is Remaking the American Family, they report that the age in which couples get married is rising, yet the rate of marriage is falling, and it is found that nearly half of all who marry, wind up separating. Additionally, the number of children born out of wedlock is now nearing those of children who are born within wedlock and the percentage of children who grow up in a single parent household is the highest it 's ever been. Using quantitative research methods, Carbone and Cahn were able to assess the changes America has seen in recent years. The changing dynamic of the family reinforces economic inequality and predetermines a child’s income as an adult.

Academic researchers as well as media commentators frequently argue that race relations in the United States have worsened considerably over the past decade. Many Americans would disagree or have different views on the previous statement being true. As the years go by, society is continuously modified and changed through innovation, discovery, and cultural awareness. “The term race relations” is peculiar. It is not about racial conflict, racial domination, racism, or racial formation. Instead it has a palliative orientation: “improving” the way in which two or more “races” and their members act toward one another” (Howard 2009:1852).

Over time, the American society has derailed from the traditional reason and forms of marriage and family set up. The American society acceptance of non-marital childbearing (single parenting), same- sex marriage has led to the trending poverty rate in average families. The main objective of the institution of marriage was meant to be between a man and a woman. Starting of a family should be a product of marriage. There is certainly a need for the American Society to embrace the old form of marriage and family setting as it is more beneficial to the upbringing of a child. This paper will focus on recent developments in marriage and family set up within the American society.

In America the concept of the traditional nuclear family is forced on the population by means of the media, social media, and the educational systems. The idea or concept of this is ideal family is a fallacy and no longer is a norm compared to the 1950’s. “Only 48.4 percent of households have a married couple; 20 percent of all households contain married couples who have children living with them” (Caruso & Timmermann, 2013). This change means that the traditional family structure has evolved. America has a high divorce rate of an estimated 40 to 50 percent. Castelloe states, that within the last 50 years there has been an increase in divorce, cohabitation instead of marriage, blended families both gay and heterosexual, and children born out

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.

While our society has moved into a more diverse and accepting community, the principles of what has been considered ideal still hold truth and are very much still imbedded in the foundations on which we live. According to “Understanding the Dynamics of Family Change in the United States”, the idea of strength and proper family upbringings stem from the idea that in order to achieve success at raising a family, a wife and husband must commit to one another and remain faithful. This principle idea has been reiterated in the minds of every individual immigrating from western cultures since the beginning of time, backed by religious unrest. That idea takes precedence in comparison that a wife is stronger

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).

Trends in family formation are crucial in determining the kind of families that will exist in future generations. It is fact that the father- mother kind of families that have existed for many generations maintained over the years due to the belief that they were the ideal type of family set up. However, the trends in family formation today are changing as a growing number of families are experiencing several challenges such as divorce, single parent situations, financial problems, legal battles over custody and wealth and infidelity, among other challenges. These have caused young people to question whether the traditional way of doing things is practical in the twenty first century and many do not intend on following their parents’