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Society and interracial relationships
Society and interracial relationships
Society and interracial relationships
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The American society is a combination of different ethnicities, cultures, and races. Throughout the history of our nation many of these ethnicities and races struggled to gain equal rights. With the issue of interracial marriage, state laws, and racial purity were the concern of many. After many years of discrimination, segregation, and miscegenation laws there came a turn around. The Civil War as well as the Supreme Court case Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia gained marital equality for all races. Though it was legal to marry interracially many people still frowned upon the idea of it. Now in the twentieth century interracial marriages have progressed and couples are living together publicly. Even though interracial marriages are becoming more common, these couples still receive unfair and mixed responses from society. These mixed responses tend to affect these couples just as it did in the past.
Before 1967 interracial marriage was illegal. The reasons for this were simply. As the white race being superior any interracial involvement with an “inferior” race was seen as demeaning the purity and superiority of the majority race (Yancey, and Lewis). Due to this belief many states inforced miscegenation laws. This law nullified any marriages of a white, black, indian, or multiracial person. If any attempted to interracially marry there was a fine of fifty dollars and possibly imprisonment (Yancey, and Lewis). Sexual activity amongst unmarried interracial couples was not typically desirable it was more accepted than an interracial marriage. Many people argue that a partner of a different race would not understand one’s cultural background. This is why many people prefer to marry within their own race. The role ...
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...ithin their own race, while others embrace the chance to mix cultures. Though these couples are free to marry whomever society as well as family can affect these couples’ decisions through mixed response and unfair treatment.
Works Cited
Root, Maria PP. “Love’s Revolution: Interracial Marriage” Temple University Press, 2001.
Yancey, George A., and Richard Lewis. “Interracial Families: Current Concepts and
Controversies” New York: Routledge 2009 Print.
“Interracial Marriages in the U.S. Hit All-Time 4.8million” : Online Library.Wiley n.d. web 08 April 2014.
Bratter, Jenifer L., and Rosalind B. King. “But Will It Last” :Online Library.Wiley.N.p 31 Mar 2008
Elles, R., and Mountford. “Molecular Diagnosis of Genetic Diseases.” Totowa, NJ: Humana Press 2004
“Interracial Marriages.” What’s the Topic. N.P., N.D. Web 22 April 2014
This book discusses twentieth century biracial and bicultural and the increase in biracial couples and therefore people. This books goal is to explore the complex and ever-changing definition of certain races and
Luther, Catherine A. and Jodi L. Rightler-McDaniels. ““More Trouble than the Good Lord Ever Intended”: Representations of Interracial Marriage in U.S. News-Oriented Magazines.” Journal of Magazine & New Media Research. 14:1. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
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....
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According to americanhistory.si.edu there was a law in Nebraska in 1911 that stated “Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.” Laws like these were harsh on African Americans and this law was passed as Jim Crow Laws were coming to an end. These weren’t just laws to the people of that time, they were a way of life. The Jim Crow Laws undermined multiple amendments and through the Unite States into turmoil and riots.
America has had a long history of racism. This fact is more easily understood if racism is understood for what it really is. It is more than just personal hatred. Racism is the “belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics” (What is Racism). The 21st century has brought a lot of changes to the American society. Nevertheless, racism still exists owing to the truth that it is still impossible to persuade the hearts of mankind in terms of racism, which leads to many people wondering how and when black and white racism will end in America. Many solutions have been suggested, and one of the various solutions is black and white interracial relationships. Such relationships have recently been successful in the 21st century, which leads us to the definitive question: can interracial relationships help reduce black and white racism in the 21st century?
Blacks and Whites first began mixing significantly in America in the 17th and 18th centuries, between African slaves and the European indentured servants. Fearing that these interracial relationships would tarnish the purity of the White race, states passed laws in the 1660s to prohibit interracial marriage. Despite these strict anti miscegenation laws, the relationships continued, sometimes through consent and other times through force, as White slave owners often raped their Black female slaves. As a result, many multiracial children were born as the circumstance of bru...
Although society has progressed immensely, the freedom to marry someone of a different ethnicity is relatively new. The anti-miscegenation laws that were adopted by so many states were created in colonial times.
At a time when many observers question whether America has made any real progress, on the racial front, it is worth recalling that as late as 1967, sixteen states prohibited people from marrying across racial frontiers. Now no such prohibitions exist... Just as many people once found trans-racial marriage to be a loathsome potentiality well-worth prohibiting, so, too, do many people find same-sex marriage to be an abomination.
Schoenberg Nara, A surprising new look at arranged marriages, August 22, 2012, Tribune Newspapers, retrieved from: http://articles.chicagotribune.com
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