The Importance Of Interracial Marriage

In May 2005 ‘Navigating Interracial Borders’ was published by Erica Chito Childs. The article offers a refined and understanding analysis of the social and political context of interracial relationships in America. Childs explores the world of interracial couples and examines the ways that group attitudes shape relationships. Using her own personal experiences, interviews, group responses, as well as media sources, she provides compelling evidence which verifies that disapproval still exists toward black/white unions. However it is merely being shown in a more subtle manor.

The history of interracial relationships in America is a painfully loaded issue which is still evolving in the consciousness of the 20th century. Because the first instances of sexual integration occurred under the institution of slavery, our understanding of them is necessarily beset with dominance, violence, and rape. Interracial relationships and the children they produced became another manifestation of power relationships between whites and blacks in our contorted social atmosphere. Even to the present day, interracial relationships are often looked upon as being propelled by impure motives and

“Race as Civic Felony” by Loic Wacquant: In this reading, the US conception of “race” is a direct outcome of the unique status of the United States as a slave holding republic (page 127). While slavery itself has long been abolished, its dynamics were replicated in Jim Crow segregation and later in the urban ghetto. In page 127, The Jim Crow regime reworked the racial boundary between slaves and free into some segregated societies. Despite the he abolition of “statues segregation”, it seems that new ways have been thought to hold minorities from the mainstream society. Another ‘peculiar institution’, born of the adjoining of the hyperghetto with the cerebral system, is reorganizing the social meaning and significance of ‘race’ in agreement with the dictates of the deregulated economy and the post-Keynesian state. In page 128, white people fear and mistrust people of color. They think of black people’s

In each generation, it seems as if there is always a very controversial issue. It usually varies from the legalization of marijuana or the lowering of the drinking age all the way to the views on abortions. However, one thing is clear, the issue on interracial relationships is still as controversial today as it was nearly fifty years ago. While times may have changed and society has gotten used to these interracial relationships, it’s still something that is being talked about regularly. Starting in the 1960’s, the issue on interracial relationships became more relevant. It sparked much controversy after a couple from Virginia was arrested for participating in an interracial relationship. The case, Loving versus Virginia, was taken to the

Regardless of our social rhetoric of color-blindness, when it comes to choosing a spouse we seem to be remarkably aware of color, at least we were legally for more than 200 years and despite legal permission, society still exacts a social opinion on the matter. Law professor Rachel Moran examines this issue in Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance and argues that the promise of racial justice is tied to integrating our most personal relationships. It is not that interracial marriages will solve the race problem in the United States. However, Moran argues that the lack of them is an indication of the strength of the problem and that they are

Interracial marriage has traditionally been viewed as a means of expressing a hatred of oneself, of escaping something in one’s culture or self that one no longer wants to identify with. Jacki Thompson Rand describes the outcome of this phenomenon in an essay on her experience as the child of an interracial marriage. She explains how her mother married a white man in an effort to make herself more white, and therefore more legitimate: “My mother 's marriage to my father was a racial love

In 1967, the US Supreme court ruled that interracial marriages must be recognized in every state. Unfortunately, multiracial families still face discrimination and the children of these marriages are still expected to claim one race (Adams at el., 2013). Multiracial families and the individuals, which these families are comprised face discrimination and prejudices on various levels (i.e. micro, macro).

Interracial marriages also are greatly affected family and whether they accept or reject the union. In the article “Understanding the Occurrence of Interracial Marriage in the United States Through Differential Assimilation” the authors talk about the social acceptance of interracial marriages and how it is “assimilated” within society. They talk about how families are a key factor in acceptance of interracial marriage:

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

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.

In 1967, the decision made by the Loving v. Virginia court case established that interracial relationships would be legal, and all laws against it would be invalidated (Loving v. Virginia). Afterwards, many biracial children were born, which created a new problem for those with different cultural backgrounds. People of different cultures face many troubling issues separate from the problems most White Americans have to face. The most offensive and abusive issue is racism. Racism is a major life-changing issue in society that hurts a majority of the ethnic cultures. A study reports, “Overall, 58% of Americans say racism is a “big problem in our society” (Neal). This shocking realization puts in the perspective the many issues that ethnic people endure. Although, biracial adolescents have to face racism in a different form. These adolescents aren’t accepted in society due to their

Although there were no federal laws regarding interracial marriage at the time of the dispute, each state had their own stance and set of laws. In fact, “Virginia [was] one of 16 States which prohibit[ed] and punish[ed] marriages on the basis of racial classifications,” and this practice of banning interracial marriages “arose[d] as an incident to slavery and [had] been common in Virginia since the colonial period” (Loving v. Virginia). Also, after the ratification of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which stated that no caucasian person could ever mix bloods with any other race such as African American or Native America in Virginia, miscegenation was outlawed in Virginia in to the hopes to maintain pure white bloodlines (Loving v. Virginia; Wolfe). The local Virginia government later stated that it was not a racist or unequal law since both members, both white and black or native american, who participated in an interracial marriage would be punished (Loving v. Virginia). However, times were changing, and as the Civil Rights progressed, ideas of separate but equal brought about by the case Plessy v. Ferguson were no longer current.

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).

Over time, society’s beliefs over human rights have changed dramatically. For example, interracial marriage was first declared constitutional and a basic right of all individuals during 1967. Decades previous to this year, it was considered taboo to interfere with the purity of one’s race. However, people eventually grew to accept that individuals of separate races can develop a loving relationship and should be able to express their feelings to the world. Nowadays, Americans, along with other people around the globe, are beginning to welcome the idea that individuals of the same gender can develop strong, loving bonds as well. Nonetheless, a portion of the population of the United States believes that the definition of marriage is “… the intimate union and equal partnership of a man and a woman” (“Meaning and Purpose”). Individuals with this belief have been attempting to elect government officials with the ability to suggest laws that forbid same-sex marriage such as a proposed amendment, which failed to pass in 2004, that declared that a marriage was to be composed of a man and a woman. Same-sex matrimonies and the definition of marriage have caused wide controversy, the establishment of supportive and opposing groups, and the formation of different thoughts over the topics that amendments should cover.

Along with child marriages, interracial marriages were still being debated in the courts. In the court case Rhinelander v. Rhinelander, a young mixed race maid fell in love and married the son of a white multi-millionaire. When a magazine published an article outing the maid as being of a mixed race, the son filed for an annulment on the grounds, “Leonard alleged that Alice had misrepresented her race to him by improperly leading him to believe that she was white, "not colored," before their nuptials.” New York did not have a law banning interracial marriages, but because race signified a social standing the court was willing to rule. The court ruled that, “knowledge about a spouse's race to be a factor so crucial to the understanding of the marital contract that fraud about it rendered the marriage voidable and thus eligible to be annulled from its start.” The court ruling set a precedent that enabled the courts to make a determination concerning the legitimacy of a marriage. Previously this was a decision that only the church could make. The change from a religious ruling to a political one showed a dynamic change in the culture of the 1920s contemporaries.