The View of Society on Interracial Marriage Essay

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.

It is hard to believe that it has only been 48 years since the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, where the court unanimously declared Virginia 's Racial Integrity Act of 1924 unconstitutional and ended all race-based marriage bans in the U.S. When I chose this topic for my assignment, I don’t know if it was the lack of knowledge or denial that led me to believe it was longer than 48 years ago. To me, it felt like it was not a long time ago, and it was mindboggling because that meant that when my parents grew up, it was illegal if you wanted to have an interracial marriage, let alone relationship. That thought made me sad, because if I had grown up in that time, it would be illegal to be with my boyfriend now. I am in

In What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America, Peggy Pascoe examines the history of miscegenation and how it laid the foundation of white supremacy in the United States. While visible forms of white supremacy such as segregation helped mask the importance of miscegenation laws, Pascoe argues that miscegenation laws was a national movement tied inseparably to gender and sexuality that went beyond the Black/White dynamic, which courts and bureaucracies of local marriage officials used to produce race in America. Pascoe goes on to argue that the core of miscegenation laws reached beyond the realm of romance as courts began to condemn the respectability of interracial relationships by equating them with illicit sex rather than marriage. Thus, this idea of unrespectable, unnatural, and immoral relationships became women into the fabric of the American society.

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.

This case note will examine the 1967 landmark Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia. The Loving v. Virginia case touched on constitutional principles including equality, federalism, and liberty. Just over 30 years ago, it was a crime for interracial couples in Virginia to marry, or to live as husband and wife. Prior to the 1967 case of Loving v. Virginia, many states had laws that banned the intermarriage of whites with black or other minorities. The United States has a long history of the existence of anti-miscegenation laws that forbid interracial marriage. The case presents the

In the article “Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race & Romance, Antimiscegenation Laws and the Enforcement of Racial Boundaries,” Rachael E. Moran writes about the problems blacks and Asians experienced in regards to sex, marriage, and family. Laws were created addressing interracial sex and marriage with the goal of keeping whites superior to all other races. Blacks and Asians encountered many restrictions regarding whom they could marry and have sexual relations with. Meanwhile white males were allowed to associate with black females, black males were punished for having any relationship with white females. Restrictions on sex and marriage were also evident for Asians. From all the Asians, Chinese were the ones who suffered the most as a result of these laws. Since many Chinese men were not able to bring in their wives or marry women from different races, they had no other choice than to live lonely lives. The results that these laws generated left both blacks and Asians to have undesirable personal lives.

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Peggy Pascoe’s “What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America,” published in 2012, is a historical and legal analysis that emphasizes the impact of racial segregation and desegregation in our society. The book primarily focuses on the roles of race and gender in these extremely significant legal happenings, though other important talking points are acknowledged as well. The main narrative of racial implication is the underlying theme in Pascoe’s writing. Pascoe presents the hard facts and inevitable truth about miscegenation laws in the United States during a time where society was torn on these very trying issues. Comparing the more modern laws to those established in the days of white and native American marriage issues, Pascoe presents the argument that these laws were established and maintained in order to preserve White supremacy and the patriarchal society it thrived in. These laws allowed for white men to thrive socially and economically while minority- and female-held positions in society became scarce. Pascoe clearly feels very strongly on these legal and historical matters, which led her to write such a bold book. Written from the point of view of an outsider looking in, Pascoe’s main point was to educate the reader of the significance of miscegenation laws in the United States. This book functions like a historical analysis, and was published posthumously. “What Comes Naturally” is targeted towards

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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.

Imagine you have fallen in love with the person of your dreams, and the two of you have discussed it and have decided to get married. Now imagine that the person you wish to marry is of a different race. It wouldn't be a big deal, right? Well, if this situation had occurred about 50 years ago, it would have been a huge deal. Just a generation ago, many states banned mixed marriages. Seems absurd, doesn't it? Discriminating against an individual like that because of the color of their skin? This is a situation in America that I am sure all of you are familiar with, and most all of us I am sure agree that just because a person has different colored skin does not make them any

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).