The idea of marriage has evolved a lot since the time that many people consider the golden era of marriage, the 1950s (CBSnews.com staff). During this time period, marriage was thought to be between only one woman and one man of the same race. These two people were usually of the same background as well. Today, even though it has become more socially acceptable and common for people to marry outside of the former comfort zone, many interracial couples receive harsh judgement and opinions from many citizens and unfair treatment from the government. The rate of interracial marriage has been on the rise, especially recently. According to The New York Daily News, now every one in twelve marriages is interracial (The Associated Press). This rate is an all time high for this type of marriage. As one would expect, these couples face different problems than monoracial couples, including repeated bias and racism from citizens outside of the relationship. Some of these opinions have turned into hate crimes. Even as we have claimed to be more supportive of interracial couples, our actions have not backed up this idea. There is still a lot of work to be done in this nation to make it as great as people say it is for all of its citizens.

Marriage is an ever changing and evolving idea. This was discussed a lot in the course, SOCY 305: Sociology of family (Augustine, Jennifer). In ancient times, it was a political idea. People got married to create and strengthen the allies of their families. There was usually no love involved in these marriages at all. Examples of this type of marriage can be seen in popular media like Game of Thrones. After this era, marriage moved to become an economic cooperation between partners. Marriages like these grew to include more love, but that was still not the main focus. These were seen largely in farming societies. These couple would have many children so that they could have as many hands working at a time as possible to help them be as successful as possible. Marriage then became more about companionship and love. This change occurred in the early to mid 1900s and has not really changed since. 

However, the differences in people involved in companionship marriages have changed since this time. When marriage became companionship based, it occurred between one man and one woman of the same race and usually of the same economic background. Today, marriages take a variety of forms. They can happen between people of the same gender, people of different races, and those of different backgrounds. Interracial marriage was illegal from the time of the colonies up until 1967 when Loving v. Virginia changed everything. The Lovings were an interracial couple from Virginia who got married in Washington, D.C. because interracial marriage was legal there. When they returned home to Virginia, they were arrested and told that their marriage was unlawful. Their case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was decided that interracial marriage should be legal (Loving). 

It took until 2000 for interracial marriage to become legal in all fifty states when it finally became legal in Alabama (Head). Even with the legalization of interracial marriage in every state, there has still been a lot of backlash for couples in interracial marriages. In 2009, a caucasian Arizona woman was murdered in a park with her African American boyfriend in a hate crime after a man questioned why they were together. Places like Phoenix, AZ, where the shooting happened, are known to have a lot of racially motivated hate groups (Teo). In 2011, a small Baptist church in Kentucky voted to ban interracial couples from any services or functions. This came into play after a child of longtime members of the church brought her black fiance to a service. Even the pastor, a man of God, seemed to have a problem with the fiance (Ng). In August 2013, a couple in New York was celebrating a birthday when they were verbally and physically attacked simply because they were an interracial couple (Beckford). In September 2013, the home of a multiracial couple that lived together with their biracial children was vandalized with racial slurs and then set on fire in Iowa (Murphy). Instances like the aforementioned show how every part of the nation is lacking in accepting interracial couples, even though interracial marriage has been legal for so long.

The crimes mentioned above should not have happened in a time like today. Activities like these seem to revert the citizens of the United States back to times like the 1940s and the Civil Rights Era. Lawmakers have passed so many laws since this time that should prevent these things from happening. Society’s attitude, behaviors, and opinion should reflect the changes that have happened, but they are currently severely lagging behind. Although younger generations are much more accepting than older generations, there is still a lot of work to be done. It is unclear to many whether this lag is a mental thing or just unwillingness.   

The rise in interracial marriages has been happening since the 1980s. Most people have become more accepting of people marrying others that are different from themselves. There are still a lot of different stereotypes that affect these different couples. Many people are still homophobic and racist. These are attitudes that really need to change in order for society to be able to progress The amount of people participating in intermarriage varies by race and gender. The rate has risen from 6.7% in 1980 to around 15% in 2010. When broken down by race and gender, it is most common for African American males and Asian women to marry outside of their race. There are a lot of similarities seen between couples that marry interracially and non-interracially. There tends to be an age gap of two to three years and median combined income are around the same amount. This changes when the couple in question is looked at more carefully. When a college educated Asian and caucasian get married their median combined income increases to around $70,952, which is $10,000 more than between two caucasians and $8,000 more than between two Asians (Wang). So, it can actually be quite beneficial for people to marry outside of their races.  

 During this time of increase, more and more people have also become more accepting of interracial marriages. However, through the movie, “Interracial Marriage in America Uncovered,” it is seen that people are still not one hundred percent supportive of these couples. People have different standards for different couplings. Men are less likely to be supportive of a white female being with a black male. For many men, this relationship is seen as either shady or that something is off. They also begin to question what is wrong with themselves that would cause a potential female partner to have to look for a partner of a different race. The thought of a woman being with someone that is unlike herself makes many men insecure and gives them the feeling that something that should belong to them is being taken away. This sentiment is reiterated by many men throughout the movie.

The opinions of support also change when it comes to someone from the personal circle of the person being asked. People tend to become less supportive and have more questions when someone they are close to begins to date someone that is dissimilar to themselves. Many of them will wonder why the person had to be different or why they were unable to find someone within their own group. According to a recent Gallup poll, public support of interracial marriages is up to an 87% approval rate. This rate is up from 4% in 1958. However, when broken down by race, more than a quarter of white non-Hispanic adults do not approve of interracial marriages. The disapproval rate increases even more when it comes to their children and grandchildren being involved in a relationship. This disapproval can be seen in both older movies and newer movies. Examples of these include, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” which came out in 1967 and “Guess Who,” which came out in 2005. Both of these movies deal with parents disapproving of the significant other that their daughter brings home solely based on the race of the man. In “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” a white woman brings home her African American fiance to meet her parents. Her mother really liked the idea of the man that her daughter was with, until he showed up and was African American. In “Guess Who,” an African American woman brings home her caucasian fiance and her father immediately disapproves of him because he is white. The fact that two similar movies were released 38 years apart reflects the opinion that there is still racism and disapproval towards interracial relationships. 

There are many different reasons why people claim to feel this way about interracial marriages. These include the history between whites and other races, implicit bias, segregation within different cities and towns, concerns for future offspring like identity crises, and border patrolling. There is a long history of white people oppressing basically every other race and ethnicity that lives in this nation. The leftover feelings of resentment cause people to not want their loved ones to have to deal with the backlash of marrying someone from one of these races or ethnicities. This issue goes both ways. However, recently relations have gotten better between caucasians have seemed to get better. Violent crime rates between races have lowered significantly (Truman). 

Implicit bias is the bias in judgement and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control (Helping Courts Address Implicit Bias). Without even knowing or recognizing it, people have a natural tendency to want to stay within groups that are familiar and similar to themselves. This causes them to not feel attracted to people of different backgrounds than themselves. Many people use this as an explanation for why they do not marry outside of their own race or ethnicity. However, this is partially invalid because people are familiar with the idea, so they technically have some sort of control over it.  

If one were to look at a map of any major city in the United States, they would see clutters of specific races in different areas spread out from other races. For example, when looking at a map of the city of Detroit, most caucasians are clustered on one side of East 8 Mile Road while African Americans are clustered on the other side with very little overlap between the two. Take Chicago as another example, Hispanics make up about three small neighborhoods while caucasians have taken over almost all of downtown and the north shore. Asians have their own little Chinatown in Chicago and African Americans are left with most of the south side (Zolfagharifard). This separation reflects the bias and segregation that goes along with realty industry. This became illegal awhile ago and should be addressed once again. This claim also reflects an infrastructure problem that should be fixed within the United States.  

 Many people claim to have the future children as their intention and reason for not supporting interracial couples. Biracial children could potentially run into an identity crisis because they do not fit into just one category (Pan). There is the potential that they would receive ridicule from other children of both races or ethnicities that they are because they are not one hundred percent similar to the other children in either group. This can occasionally lead to anxiety or depression. This explanation can be found invalid because almost every child, no matter their race or background, goes through an identity crisis at one point or another. It is just a part of growing up.

The final common explanation is many people will try to control who the people in their lives hang out with besides themselves. This action is summed up as the idea of border patrolling. People believe that they can inhibit others from making meaningful connections with those who are different from them for reasons that cannot be controlled. However, this practice should not be used because it basically causes racial issues that could easily be avoided if people minded their own business about who others spend their time with. Due to how much more prevalent interracial marriages have become, people should look past these reasons and become more accepting of them being in their personal circle. However, the attitudes of society are often known to lag behind the progress of different social aspects. 

Some African Americans are a lot less willing to begin a relationship with a caucasian than with a Hispanic or Asian person because of the history between the two groups and the current situations that occur. Caucasians have oppressed people with pigmented skin since before the United States was even an idea. This fact has seriously affected how the two groups interact today. It has been found that African Americans feel a lot of distrust and fear in their romantic relationships with caucasians (Yancey). A whole minority of people should not have to feel this way towards the majority, especially today when people claim to be accepting of everyone. Caucasians cannot take back the actions of the forefathers, however they can interact with people of color more often to show that they actually are as accepting as they claim to be. This would also progress the relations between the two. In turn, this would help people on both sides to become more accepting of the relationships that their people are getting themselves into. Different races need to get past the mental blocks that are keeping these opinions among their members present. Once they do this, more people will be accepting of interracial marriages and they will all be able to live together harmoniously. 

The actions that people perform speak a lot louder than the words that come out of their mouth. As a nation, we claim to be supportive of all of our people. However, our actions do not really show this support. There are still too many instances of hate crimes occurring for this support to really be there. People are still very judgemental and unsupportive when it comes to their friends and loved ones dating someone of a different race or ethnicity. The reasons that they try to hide behind are quite blasphemous and all have holes. If people could look past these excuses, they would be able to see the positives that can come from interracial marriages. Some interracial combinations produce a higher median income than monoracial marriages. There really are not many differences between interracial and monoracial couples. If people could look past one’s color and/ or ethnicity and just see that all love is the same, life would be much simpler in this country. Hopefully, as new generations come along, they will continue to keep being more and more accepting of interracial couples so that the racism that surrounds them is diminished.          

 