Colorblind Love
I met my wife Aretha in the fall of 1997; she had just moved from Portland, Oregon, to my hometown of Portland, Maine. By Christmas we were dating, and before we knew it we were both graduating and heading to Boston for college. We’re now happily married and have a one-year-old baby girl. It sounds like a classic high school sweetheart romance, right? Well, to us, yes. But to many people, we’re “different”. These people’s views have nothing to do with our love, our relationship, or our daughter. They have to do with race. Yes, I’m talking about the mere color of our skin. My wife is Black and I am White. We’re both Americans, born on the same soil and raised within the same language and popular culture—all variables are equal except for our skin color. Yet many people see us as two entirely different types of people who do not belong together, as if Cupid’s arrows discriminate. Have these bigots ever bothered us? Of course, we’ve been affected in some ways. But overall, we thank them for their ignorance, as our relationship has only grown stronger. For instance, if we’re at the mall and a few people stare at us or point in our direction, we smile and wrap our arms around each other even tighter.
A major reason we receive stares and assume special status is not only because of people’s views, but also because we are relatively rare. Slavery was abolished almost 140 years ago and our own parents witnessed the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. So why do interracial marriages still only account for 2.9 percent of all American marriages according to the latest U.S. Census data? Or more specifically, why do Black/White couples like Aretha and me account for only 0.7 percent? Of course there is no simple answer ...
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... will approach melting pot status; the blender will grind the vegetables. If my grandchildren ever have to write a paper like this, my hope is that it will document success and the achievement of real racial equality.
Works Cited:
Randall Kennedy, Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption, Pantheon Books, 2003;
Maria Root, Love’s Revolution: Interracial Marriage, Temple University Press, 2001;
Maria Root, “The Color of Love,” The American Prospect, 8 Apr. 2002;
Michael Lind, “Far From Heaven,” The Nation, 16 Jun. 2003;
Regan Good, “Questions for Randall Kennedy: Color Dynamics,” New York Times Magazine, 9 Feb. 2003;
“Racial Patterns Across the United States,” Society, Nov./Dec. 2001; United States Census Bureau, "Interracial Married Couples", 12 Jun 2003,
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/ tabMS-3.pdf.
But what if you are a White female in a family that is very much against interracial marriage and you are in love with a Black man, or vice versa, if you are a Black woman in love with a White man who’s family is very secluded to the fact that interracial couples are becoming accepted amongst the 21st century. This exact conflict is represented in the movie Little White Lie. In the movie, Lacey’s mom, Peggy, had an affair and got pregnant by a black man. Peggy states “The fact is if the man with whom I had the affair hadn 't been Black none of this would have come out.” Meaning in the days when the affair has happened, 1968, it was considered so wrong to be in an interracial relationship that the only reason it was a big deal for Peggy to be having an affair was not because of the affair itself but because the affair was with a Black man. Today this belief of segregation among marriage or White and Black still exists, it’s just is not as strong. Some families are realizing that love is love and skin color does not matter as long as the relationship is
The future of multiracial groups, I predict will become more accepting and considering. For instance, the census allowing people to choose more than one racial categories has become a start. With more and more groups entering the U.S and the increasing interracial marriages it is only predicted that multiracial groups will soon become a much larger statistics. In the 2000 census 2.4% of the population classified with two or more races and this number is predicted to increase. ( ) How long before multiracial groups of all kinds will be full accepted into society is left unknown, however in today society race regardless if you are half white, black, Hispanic or Asian still matters in society.
The social issue of interracial relationships has been evident throughout history. Slavery in America greatly altered the views on interracial relationships. All African Americans were seen as less than dirt and treated any terrible way the white men or women wanted to treat them. According to Interracial Relationships: A Rundown of Issues, “African American men who so much as looked at a white women could be killed, and brutally so” (Nittle). This shows how much the white men and women despised African Americans. The whites would find anything the African Americans did as offensive. Therefore, the African Americans were afraid to even attempt a relationship because they would get killed for looking at a white. The white men were able to look at white women as much as they wanted, but race discrimination kept the African American men from doing so. Since the African American men and women were not s...
...ia has told them. The legalization of steroids in sports would not only have positive effects on the fans and players but also on the sport itself. Steroids would not only create better, but safer games. Many of the steroid arguments about players would subside and overall the playing fields for athletes would be more equal, and would yield greater competition. While steroids have had a presence in sports, they will only continue to be around and create a bigger and bigger presence unless something is done. Since taking asteroids out of every sport is nearly impossible, the only way to keep the game fair may be to legalize steroids. The legalization of steroids does not mean that every player has to take them, it is still a choice, it just means that players have the opportunity to take them and try to increase their athletic ability without getting in trouble.
Before 1967, interracial unions were illegal. Once the legislature overturned the ruling of the laws against interracial unions, the biracial population increased. Census data reveals that the US’ multiracial population has approached more than nine million individuals. In 1997, due to this dramatic increase, a change was made which allowed the biracial population to check off more than one racial category on the 2000 United States Census. This feat was not accomplished without controversy. A federal task force was set up to investigate the political and social implications of creating a new racial classification....
In today’s day and age, steroids have plagued the reputation of many sports. It was first presented in Russia and sparked a new era of bigger athletes with no seeming end. Steroids have gotten its way into every sport with usage high school athletes all the way to the pros. Even though there are many effects to the users health, steroid use is through the roof. Because our athletes are bigger and stronger than they were 60 years ago, they feel the need to be the biggest and do not care if there life is on the line. From Lance Armstrong to Alex Rodriquez, also known as A-Roid, our greats have cheated their way to greatness. Although our government has pushed for several laws to cut down from steroid use, they have little to no use. It has been a huge issue in the world of sports and is now getting the attention and recognition it deserves in the media. Steroid use by athletes of all ages are tarnishing their reputation and destroying their lives, and a solution is needed.
...ve eaten, to break down the food into a liquid mixture and to slowly empty that liquid mixture into the small intestine. Once the bolus has entered your stomach it begins to be broken down with the help of the strong muscles and gastric juices which are located in the walls of your stomach. The gastric juices are made up of hydrochloric acid, water, and mucus- and the main enzyme inside of your stomach is what is known as pepsin, which needs to be surrounded in an acidic setting in order to do its job, that is to break down protein. Once the bolus has been inside of your stomach for long enough it begins to form into a liquid called chyme, and what keeps the chyme from flowing back into our esophagus are ring shaped muscles known as sphincters located at the beginnings and ends of the stomach and they have the task of controlling the flow of solids and liquids.
... of different races. According to the Census Bureau, due to the overturn of Loving vs. Virginia and the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, the interracial marriages have skyrocketed. For example, “black and white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005” (NBC). Today about 95% of blacks approve interracial marriage whereas, whites approve about 84%. Over the decades both races approval on interracial marriage has grown. The overturning of the Anti-Miscegenation law has changed American culture greatly over the last century; people nowadays are not as judge mental, and more acceptable to those of a different race.
Each partner involved in an interracial relationship may have his or her unique experience with racial, ethnic, or gender bias. These experiences often influence intimate relationships. In an interracial relationship, the marginalization or discrimination experienced by the partner from a minority group often arise in the relationship. Racial biases or even it suspicion may arise even in the most serious relationship. Fusco (2010) found out that racial profanities were intermittently used sarcastically by interracial couples during confrontations. Any form of racial insinuation has a great likelihood of causing physical or emotional abuse among interracial couples. The unique social and legal experience of interracial couples implies that they face great social and structural challenges. As a consequence, interracial relationships have a greater risk of conflict that result in
Rose, Caroline. “Potential Role Conflicts in Black-White Marriages.” Interracial marriage: Expectation and Realities. Ed. Stuart, Edwin. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973.
It has three functions which are to act as a food reserve, to break down food further whilst mixing it with digestive juices and to start protein digestion (Aspinall and Cappello, 2009). There are gastric pits within the gastric mucosa that produce hydrochloric acid, mucus and pepsin. The process of breaking down and mixing the food with digestive juices takes approximately two hours using the muscles to contract and mix the contents of the stomach. Once this is complete, chyme is produced which moves into the duodenum (Dallas, 2012).
The United States has witnessed a considerable amount of social and cultural desegregation between African-Americans and Caucasians. However, despite years of desegregation, social and cultural differences still exist. One of these differences that still exists is in the institution of marriage. Americans have been and are continually moving slowly away from segregation. In the past forty years, a multitude of changes have transformed schools, jobs, voting booths, neighborhoods, hotels, restaurants and even the wedding altar, facilitating tolerance for racial diversity (Norman 108).
Hi there. My name is Albert and this is my adventurous story of my journey through a human. I was a delicious gourmet hamburger with fresh ingredients like salad, mustard and an angus beef pattie. I was dumped into a family feed box labelled with a massive golden arched ‘M’. Now, I’m quite an intelligent burger, unlike my other food companions and I love studying about the fascinating human digestive system when I went to Burgerton College. I’m here to tell you first-hand about my digestive journey into the human body! Here is a map of the human digestive system for your convenience to pinpoint where I am in my journey as I am recounting my story.
...quires humility and self-knowledge about herself that her service to all the soldiers in the world would not make amends to what she did that night at the Tallis manor.
One of the first steps of digestion begins in the stomach. The stomach is an organ, which gets the bolus from the esophagus and helps with chemical and mechanical digestion. Now, let’s break that down a little bit. First of all, if you don’t know what the stomach looks like, it is J-shaped. That should make it pretty easy for you to recognize. Okay, so, bolus is a small, circular mass of digested food. The esophagus is a muscular tube that is used to help food and liquids make its way into the stomach. But, the esophagus is not involved with digestion. The mechanical digestion is the breaking down of big chunks of food into smaller chunks. On the other hand, chemical digestion, is a more complicated form of digestion, which break down molecules and passes through the blood stream. So, once again, the stomach gets the mass of digested food from the esophagus and helps with the mechanical and chemical digestion.