This paper is a research paper on inter racial relationships and marriages.
Since the beginning of the cradle of civilization, man has been divided on the basis of race, religion and color. As the time passed, people started exploring newer lands and started understanding that humans had been created on different race structures. Somehow the urge to be divided was always amongst us and due to which racial acceptance was negligible when the people from other races and color started coming into newer countries. Explorers always have had sights of people of different races, but when these people were brought to White countries, the attitude towards these people was very unacceptable from the local people and this was the first start of racism. To envisage two people of different races getting together was an unimaginable thing and was considered taboo.
There is no definite history of how and when interracial relationships started, but the thought itself was associated as the worst thing that could be done. The United States of America is a country who has a history of migration. The white settlers who entered the country had a feeling of being utmost civilized and believed in a system of society and culture. When the concept of slavery started, the Africans who were brought into the country were very much ill treated and were labeled as servants of the worst kind. There was an amount of abhorrence related with the African community during the slave era. Since there was so much odium for the black community that the mixing of whites with blacks was considered taboo and a marriage was unthinkable.
Slowly as time passed, and people from both the races started knowing each other, some dared to take the next step and performed inter racial marriages. These couples were silently boycotted socially and were looked down with eyes of disgust. The intermixing of the races was so upsetting to the authorities that in a short while laws were being passed against inter racial marriages.
The first of these laws came in 1664 in Maryland which banned any kind of relationship and marriage inter racially and since laws had to be made on reasons, the best cause that they came up with was since blacks were considered as slaves, then there would a matter of subjectivity on the children of these kind of couples, as their status would be unclear of being free or being slaves. The following time brought the laws in more states of the country, and similar laws against inter racial marriages were formed in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and in North and South Carolina. Virginia went a step ahead and in the year 1691 and apart from criminalizing inter racial marriages they officially declared the children of inter racial marriages as abominable mixtures. Even after slavery was abolished, the divide existed between the whites and the blacks, and laws still existed against inter racial marriages. The feeling was simple and that was whites had a superior blood line and abode improbable genes which would get spoilt if the genes of Africans or for that matter even Native Americans were mixed. The emotion
of being superior than the other race was the main reason that law still continued which very harshly banned any kind of inter racial relations. The following will explain the extremities done by law on inter racial relationships:
‘In 1895, South Carolina banned the union of whites and blacks. In modern day language, interracial dating was prohibited. Most southern states had formed this kind of law during the 1800s’ (Jorge Castro, Cara Coffina, and Kay Surnes)
The congress somehow realized that these laws were not appropriate and had to be eradicated and legislations were started to be made against it, but since racism and non acceptance of this kind of relation was so much filled in judges of the Supreme Court that they upheld the ban and reprimanded the congress for trying issues like this.
The mixing of two races with an intention to create an offspring with or without marriage is known as miscegenation. Though the laws were there in most of the states, but they didn’t exist in all the states and miscegenation continued on the lines of couples falling in love or white masters taking sexual advantage of their black female slaves. In either case children were being produced and a new line of racial gene pool was being created. These children had to suffer a lot during that time and were always subjected to humiliation and abuse. Once the slavery had been abolished, the black community was still confused with its rights and was finding a place in the American society. It has been roughly estimated that today more approximately seventy percent of the population is because of inter racial mixing of before. One of the famous cases of
inter racial marriage was a white man called Loving who underwent hell because of his marriage with a black woman named Mildred Jeter. The couple secretly went to Washington and since there were no laws against it there, they married and came back to Virginia which was their home. On their arrival they were treated as felons and underwent a term of one year in prison. This case became a highlight in inter racial marriages as the era was past slavery and there was a new rise of society being made of whites and blacks. The lowest point in terms of constitutional history can be said to the late abolishing of the ban on inter racial marriages and it was not until 1967, the supreme court decided that such kind of ban only hindered the functioning of the constitution and it had to be removed.
Today the scenario is much changed then what it was in the previous history, the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. have had an ancestry of inter racial relationships, and today people have accepted it as a part of growing globalize society. According to a census report of the United States of America, the ratio of inter racial marriages have doubled in a span of fifteen years from the 1980s to mid nineties. On gender term, the report suggests black females have married more white men and if compared to their previous statistic they have jumped a whopping 171%. Also the report indicates the Black communities raging inter racial marriage increase with other communities other than
whites by a massive 121%. Today the inter racial relationships are not just limited to relations between White Americans and African American community, but also there has been a lot of other racial communities, of Hispanics and Asian. In Hispanic, it is dived between the white Hispanics and black Hispanics and in Asians the boundary increases more as there is more of diversity in the Asian community, which inhibits from South East Asians to Chinese and Japanese communities. Another interesting statistic that has been seen is that around seventy five percent of Native Americans are making choices to fall into marriage with people other than their own community. Even a large percentage of people from the Japanese American community have interracial marriages.
There are lots of advantages and disadvantages when inter racial marriage is analyzed. Firstly in terms of growing up, these children understand the true meaning of racial harmony and in one way they would be better citizens as they would have more tolerance for different races and would not be a participant of any kind of racism. Also today with race comes a different religion, and this too becomes an advantage as the child learns to digest the meaning of two religions at the same household and would understand the true meaning of faith and patience for other religious communities. Today when the world is more dived on religious issues and terrorism is being spread on the lines of religion, then these offspring from inter racial marriages would be the first ones to understand the exact meaning of cultural and racial harmony. It would be very unlikely
that these children might ever resort to any form of hate crimes or violence on the lines of race or religion. More over when a couple marries inter racially then they too get to know what the true knowledge on the other culture. The understanding and the patience to deal with the partner is also at a very high level since the acceptance of the couple is much beyond racially and on religious lines. On a genetic term, it is always seen that people who have genes similarity if they marry their offspring are always suppose to be of a
lower IQ and is also susceptible to diseases. The Jew community which faces a lot of dilemma because of the no of in bred marriages that take place and in a way brings in a lot of bad recessives to their gene pool. The children of families from inter racial marriages are said to be biologically more stronger due as the race gets diverse the gene pool becomes more stronger due to its racially diversity. Children have been found to have better IQs and have been physically in terms of immunity stronger than children from parents having the same race. In terms of looks to the generations of inter racial families are said to be more beautiful and have unique features. The impact of marrying in the same gene pool is very much seen in the native villages of Europe and Russia, where people looks are quiet similar to each other and they are at risks of spoiling the gene pool of their community. Inter racial families and couples are said to be more tolerant and the level of understanding is much higher than a normal family, as in a way they the best of both the races.
However when a couple marries inter racially there are a set of disadvantages too that are associated with them. The following will she light on the principled theory of this kind of marriage:
‘Explanations range from having a strict psychological focus where the relationship is believed to result from the person’s motives and preferences to those explanations focusing on structural factors where large scale social forces are seen as most influential’ (Kellina M. Craig-Henderson. page 63. 2006).When a couple who is racially different from each other decides to get into a relationship or get married, there are a lot of factors that surround to negate their relation. First is the human acceptability issue, where somehow it is harder to see someone of the same race being involved romantically with the other race. The cultural and racial divide of peers is on of the biggest hindrances that any couple whoa re inter racial suffers. There is always the question from families and friends about the need to get associated with another race when they could have found someone in their own race itself. Sometimes even people in the community find it odd and awkward to find to find couples who are of different races staying together and though legally they cannot do anything to them, but then they use hate mails and telephone calls to spoil their relationships. The following will explain the concept of hate mails send to inter racial couples:
‘A few couple receive letters from people who are clearly racist and vehemently oppose
inter racial relationships. These types of problem are similar to obscene phone calls except there is some tangible reminder of how difficult it is for others to accept the relationship’ (Robert P. McNamara, Maria Tempenis, Beth Walton. Page 100. 1999).
The main problem that is associated with these couples is the amount of racism that is associated to them. These couple normally come into lime light and often become target of people with racist mentalities. The families too sometimes go a touch higher to spoil the chances of their wards getting married to people of other races. People who are oppose this marriages and relationship have a feeling that the people who have inter racial marriages or sexual relationships are be disloyal to their own communities as well as to their families and friends. Sometimes some families in the African American community have a problem as they feel their children or loved ones who are getting into this inter racial relationship would somehow forget their own culture and would not value their ‘black heritage’. The children from these inter racial relationships sometimes find it hard to cope in society of their parents different racial heritage and they too become the object of abuse to other children, for which sometimes the child can undergo serious psychological trauma. Children might also tend to prefer one race and might feel ashamed of the other race associated with them, which might bring them to being partial to one of their family side.
Another disadvantage to this kind of inter racial relation is that one of the partner
might feel inferiority complex because of their physical appearance compared to their counterparts of the other race. The following will best explain the complex issue which occurs in inter racial marriages or relations:
‘The men of either black-white or black-Asian heritage said that they sometimes attempted to act black, which they defined as intimidating or aggressive posturing in order to enhance the social perception of masculinity’ (Maria P. P. Root. Page 73. 2001).
One issue that has always been seen revolving around inter racial marriage is the crisis of identity. Even when couples decide to get married, after the marriage they start corresponding an identity crisis amongst themselves to make the other person happy. However the worst crisis can come is in the child of these children, as they would abruptly get confused on which race to follow and based on their looks they might have to choose the ways of a race but in their heart and soul, they might have tendencies of another ace of their parent. The following will explain the true nature of the identity crisis that these children undergo:
‘Children are faced with problems that tend to produce reactions of guilt, insecurity, anxiety, and emotional instability and would like to identify with both parents but find themselves torn between the loyalties they owe each parent’ (Vernellia R. Randall.1993).
The identity crisis can really hamper the psychology of the child, and if the child is mistreated or a partiality has been shown to them on the basis of how they look from the families of their parents, they get deeply wounded emotionally and sometimes in this torn sentiment they start resenting their parents too. There are a lot of celebrities today in America that are belonging to a family with inter racial heritage or have married to someone other than their race. ‘Robert Di Nero’ who is esteemed actor of the Hollywood is one prime example of a celebrity getting into inter racial marriage. Elizabeth Hurley is also another prime example of a famous actress being involved in inter racial marriage with a man of Indian origin.
Media has been one of the prime supporters of today’s times of this concept of marriage. Media has gone out all guns just in terms of news to entertainment channels showing this concept as a popular one and has in one way brought people to accept reality of inter racial marriages. But there have been instances where media has displayed the views of people who oppose this kind of marriage and has even shed light on some sets of problems that these marriages face. The following will explain media’s role highlighting the problems of these marriages:
‘The most obvious examples can be found on the daytime talk show circuit. “The Larry Elder Show” has been absolutely obsessed with this topic, producing almost ten sensationalistic episodes on interracial relationships in the course of six months’ (Carmen Van Kerckhove. 2005).
It can be only concluded that inter racial marriages have to stay now and though there are no laws banning miscegenation, still these couple fight hard to avoid racism and acceptability just so that they can together in peace and in love.
Work cited:
1) Jorge Castro, Cara Coffina, and Kay Surnes “The Legacy of Perceptions of Interracial Relationships as Demonstrated in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Black Literature and Events”. http://www.gwu.edu/~e73afram/jc-cc-ks.html
2) Kellina M. Craig-Henderson. ”Black Men in Interracial Relationships: What’s Love Got to Do with It? “Published by Transaction Publishers, 2006
3) Robert P. McNamara, Maria Tempenis, Beth Walton.” Crossing the Line: Interracial Couples in the South”Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999
4) Maria P. P. Root ,”Love’s Revolution: Interracial Marriage”. Published by Temple University Press, 2001
5) Vernellia R. Randall.” Inter racial marriage and effect on children”.1993. http://academic.udayton.edu/race/04needs/s98alouis.htm
6) Van Kerckhove.”Tolerance in the news”. 2005. http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=1234
7) http://www.vdare.com/sailer/marriage.htm
