The Importance Of Interethnic Relationships

There are two different dimensions of our identities: ethnicity and race. Ethnicity refers to one’s belonging to a specific cultural, or racial group that makes up culture, race language, and/or place of origin. For example, one can be African-American but have different ethnicities, one African-American and the other African-Caribbean decent. Race is a social construct that can be changed over time. Historically, referring to its specific characteristics one possesses based on: ethnicity, religion, or language; today's its classified solely based upon the color of one’s skin. Nevertheless, ethnic and racial identities are important and instill a sense of belonging and identifying with that specific group through attitude, behaviors. Moreover,

While during the internalization-commitment stage, they are satisfied and secure about their race and welcome other racial and ethnic groups; in this stage, they apply their internalized racial identities into their behaviors and actions (Cross, 1991). The frequently used instrument to operationalize Cross’s model is called the Racial Identity Attitude

Traditionally, people have believed that when a person marries outside of their race, they do so as a way to escape from their race, culture, or traditional beliefs. In contrast, popular culture theorizes that interracial marriages are motivated not by a desire to leave behind one’s heritage, but by love between two people who happen to be of different races. In this paper, I seek to analyze and compare these two perspectives, proposing a theory that combines the two by accounting for a person’s upbringing and beliefs when deciding what their motivation may be. I first analyze the traditional belief of interracial marriage in comparison to the popular culture belief and present my theory combining the two. I then analyze the effect of dominant versus nondominant culture on motivations, and use examples from popular culture to look at the effect a person’s culture and upbringing can have their motivations for marriage. Lastly, I explain how my perspective will affect the way I live my life.

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.

The community has a great impact on mate selection and family formation (McGoldrick, 1998). Molina et al., (2004) argue that communities serve as proxies for extended families in many societies and are extremely important in bringing intercultural couples together. People who are in intercultural relationship must understand that there will be challenges and obstacles from others that are against interracial or intercultural relationships. If the relationship is valuable to them then they will be able to over come adversity such as prejudice and discrimination and a host of other negative challenges they may occur.

One’s colour, religion and families origin should not interfere with the happiness between the couple. A publication by the University of Toronto Scarborough furthers this notion of love and relationships; yet explains there are many barriers and challenges which many interracial couples strive to overcome.

Race and ethnicity is a main factor in the way we identify others and ourselves. The real question here is does race/ethnicity still matter in the U.S.? For some groups race is not a factor that affects them greatly and for others it is a constant occurrence in their mind. But how do people of mix race reacts to this concept, do they feel greatly affected by their race? This is the question we will answer throughout the paper. I will first examine the battle of interracial relationship throughout history and explain how the history greatly explains the importance of being multiracial today. This includes the backlash and cruelty towards interracial couple and their multiracial children. Being part of a multiracial group still contains its

Neomoto argues that although America is seeing more interracial marriage, we haven’t reached a post-racism era because there are only certain types of interracial couples who are embraced by society. To demonstrate this point, he discusses the gendered ideas surrounding interracial marriages of whites and Asians or Asian Americans. Neomoto points out how marriages between white men and Asian women are far more common and accepted than between white women and Asian men. This is because Asian women, along with being eroticized by their petite frames and dark hair, are often stereotyped with traditional gendered qualities like being submissive and good caretakers (Neomoto, pg. 223). This is seen as attractive for white men and a way for them to feel more masculine in a world where white women strive for more

The article Psychological Advantages of Strong Identifying As Biracial introduces the idea of multiracial people and what they identify themselves as.The article Psychological Advantages of Strong Identifying As Biracial uses facts to explain how they fit in with people that are not multiracial. Multiracial people have flexible identities is a powerful example that illustrates biracial people have no problem blending into our society. Another important idea from the article Psychological Advantages of Strong Identifying As Biracial is “Multiracial people are proud to be multiracial which demonstrates they are proud of who they are and have no problem expressing it. The examples found in the article Psychological Advantages of Strong Identifying

Ethnic identity is described as one’s sense of belonging to an ethnic group that is composed of ethnic awareness, self-identification, attitudes, and behaviors as a part of their membership. In America, there are many minorities, such as Latinos, Asians, and Blacks, who have a unique culture integrated within their ethnic group. However, society has been guilty of assimilating people into becoming more “American” rather than allowing them to express their culture. Through their own personal experiences, authors Amy Tan, Gloria Anzaldua, and Zora Neale Hurston advocate that the ability to find one’s ethnic identity is by seeking the importance and impact their past experiences mademakes in their lives.

There are particular assumptions regarding the racial identity and unique challenges of multiracial individuals of mixed African-American and European-American descent that have arisen based on historical trends. For example, it is assumed that multiracial individuals have been expected to identify as mono-racial African-Americans as a result of legal and social constructions (Monahan, 2014). In addition, theoretical literature suggests that this group of individuals have faced challenges in their racial identity development, struggling with various possible racial identities. Racial identity development and self-concept formation begins in childhood and is greatly affected by the attitudes and interaction of adults. The present study, researched

A person’s owns racial and ethnic identity is impacted due to youthful familiarities. This is brought out through adolescence and remains throughout their life. However, a person’s growth development varies from person to person is contingent based on their race and ethnicity, and there are five stages that contains evolving racial and ethnic identity. The five stages are the Conformity Stage, the Dissonance and Appreciating Stage, the Resistance and Immersions Stage, the Introspection Stage, and the Integrative Awareness Stage. During each phase, Atkinson et al., (1998; Sue & Sue, 2008) emphasizes the client’s outlooks for self, others of the similar minority group, others of a diverse minority group and outlooks concerning the lead group.

In today’s society the high influx of interracial marriages between Black and White individuals has resulted in the biracial population increasing significantly over the past 30 years (Roth, 2005). According to the 2010 census, the number of American children that categorize themselves as biracial has increased to 4.2 million, making it the quickest emergent youth group in the United States (Census, 2010). This has led to interest in the biracial population; recent literature has shown that amongst many studies, “individuals perceive the relationship between their mixed parentage and their self identity differently” (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002). This is significant in the area of child development and family studies because self-identity

Interracial couples as well as same sex couples face many of the same controversial problems and dilemmas, however, not many differences could be seen between the values of these couples regardless of their generations. The two different groups of individuals being interviewed were a selected group of interracial couples of an older age group ranging from 60 – 33, and a group of same sex couples the ages of 25 – 19. The relationship that was being studied was the relationship values between individuals in interracial relationships in previous generations versus the values of individuals in same sex relationships in our current generation. My hypothesis was that interracial couples as well as same sex couples face many of the same

“cultural values and behaviors , sense of group membership and minority status experience (Haji et al 2011).Social identity theory (SIT) given by Tajfel and Turner, 1975 provided a framework for understanding cultural identity. According to this theory, social identity is a sense of belonging to a particular social category or group, and the importance of social identity depends upon the inter relation context as cited by (Haji et al, 2011) .So the culture or group that the person identifies with influences their pride and self esteem.