Interracial Marriage Essay

Interracial marriage occurs between two people from separate racial backgrounds. As a general note â€Å"African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans are far less numerous than whites, and therefore have fewer opportunities to meet one another. â€Å"Most interracial marriages, therefore, involve whites, who constitute the majority of the population† (Qian, 1999, p. 579). Throughout history interracial marriage has not been recognized in the United States as a valid marriage. â€Å"One theme that has been pervasive in U. S. history and literature and that has been accompanied by a 300-year-long tradition of legislation, jurisdiction, protest, and defiance is the deep concern about, and the attempt to prohibit, contain, or deny, the presence of black-white interracial sexual relations, interracial marriage, interracial descent, and other family relations across the powerful black-white divide† (Sollors, 2000, p. 3). Interracial couples have been scrutinized, judged, and looked down upon simply for loving someone with a different skin color. In the not so distant past â€Å"a complicated area defined only by the racial difference of bride and groom was designated where family founding was considered â€Å"null and void,† and children of interracially married couples were deemed illegitimate†(Sollors, 2000, p. 3). In recent years the interracial couple has been more accepted by society. Despite this acceptance there is a number of issues interracial marriages face. Reviewing the structure of the interracial marriage will help us gain an understanding of interracial marriage. â€Å"While, in 1970, 0. 7 percent of all marriages in the continental United States were interracial, today 2 percent of all Americans marry outside their race The number of ‘mixed-race’ births have grown 26 times faster than all U. S. births† (Korgen, 1998, p. 1). Interracial couples have a variety of backgrounds and there is not a conclusive theory that suggests why people enter into interracial relationships. The basic explanation for entering an interracial relationship is physical attraction and comfortableness. Research has found â€Å"Most biracial couples say that they became attracted to each other because of compatibility† (Socha & Diggs, 1999, p. 150). Interracial couples and families expand over all socioeconomic classes. Unfortunately, â€Å"most (interracial) couples have experienced some form of racism during their relationship†(McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 106). With the exception of racism â€Å"There has been very little written on the interracial family, and nothing regarding the interracial family contextualized in leisure within the leisure literature. As the number of interracial marriages increases, it will become increasingly important to understand the needs of these families† (Hibbler & Shinew, 2002). Culture throughout interracial families is distinguished by each individual couple. â€Å"In general, one of the major issues for interracial families is identifying, preserving, and explaining the cultural heritage to their children†(McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 65). Studies have found that typically one culture has a stronger influence on the interracial couple. The culture with the stronger influence typically takes over in the household and that culture is more influential with the children involved in the interracial family. â€Å"Our racial structure does not yet allow biracial Americans to choose freely between their two racial heritages† (Korgen, 1998, p. 67). Interracial children often have a hard time identifying with their background. â€Å"Typically, racially mixed children will be somewhat ambivalent towards their parents’ ethnic or racial backgrounds† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 66). Biracial children have an especially difficult time identifying themselves as teenagers. â€Å"As the child enters high school, where one’s identity begins to take a particular shape dating begins, it is easy to see how difficulties can develop for biracial children. Since their physical appearance is different, and their families are considered unusual, many peer groups reject them† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 66). A substantial historical literature base suggests that interracial marriage may have a number of negative effects on the couples and their children. Among the suggested negative effects are anxiety, insecurity, guilt, anger, depression, and identity conflicts. On the rare occasions that biracial people and/or interracial couples are asked about their social reality, they often report that the psychological and sociological problems that they face are manifestations of racism and overall societal pressure. This suggests that, perhaps the broader concern is not the issues affecting those involved in interracial relationships, but rather the societal issue of race and the â€Å"possessive investment in whiteness†(Hibbler & Shinew, 2002). Biracial children typically identify themselves with one race and portray those characteristics. â€Å"Biracial Americans who appear white are often judged by different standards than darker mixed-race individuals when they face the racial litmus test. Those who appear white are assumed to be white by those in the larger society who are unaware of their heritage† (Korgen, 1998, p. 64). The biggest issues interracial couples and children deal with are racism and self identity. There are several coping mechanisms for interracial families deal with when experiencing racism or self identity including ignoring it, dismiss it, and normalize it, awareness, hiding, support groups, and using humor to cope with negative reactions of others. Ignoring and dismissing racism are very similar concepts. People have said that sometimes they feel they should say something in return to a racist comment but choose to ignore or dismiss it to avoid conflict. Normalizing racism occurs when people accept that they will be singled out because they are an interracial couple. An interracially married woman â€Å"Sydney Mead has this to say (about interracial marriage and portrayed racism): We are just ordinary people, an ordinary married couple and go through the same things that everybody else goes through. We have our problems you know, up and down, up and down† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 111). Awareness is when interracial â€Å"couples are able to minimize the likelihood of encountering problems, or diminishing their impact, by being very aware of their surroundings and the places they frequent. Many feel they can significantly reduce the type and frequency of problems by simply avoiding some places and spending more time at others† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 111). Hiding is when couples withdrawal from social interaction to avoid racism or judgment. Support groups are an excellent resource for interracial couples who have estranged family and need to build a social network of support. Humor is another coping mechanism. Many couples have learned to laugh about the interactions they have as an interracial couple. Laughter and making jokes often helps to ease the pain of racism and make light of situations (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999). While it is true that interracial marriage has changed in the eyes of society in recent years, â€Å"†A great deal of misinformation exists concerning interracial couples. (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 3). â€Å"The recent increase in interracial marriage is seen as a positive change in race relations and a decline in racism. It also indicates that racial distances have declined between whites and racial minorities because of the increase in interracial marriages with whites for all racial minorities â€Å"(Qian, 1999, p. 579). The acceptance of interracial marriage and the decline in racism is a great achievement for society. This is true but â€Å"there are still powerful forces in society that make interracial marriage difficult, unappealing to people who might be looking for a partner, or otherwise unlikely† (Socha & Diggs, 1999, p. 150). Although there has been much progress and acceptance with the concept of interracial marriages in society there is much more work and progress that needs to be completed. More research needs to be conducted to fully understand the cultural influences interracial families have. â€Å"Overall, more attention is needed for ethnic culture, especially in the family communication classroom. This general inattention can be attributed, in part, to family communication scholars’ and educators’ viewing their work from a Eurocentric perspective, which, similar to Eurocentrism in everyday life, leads to a general neglect of ethnic culture by assuming that all families are similar to those of the dominant group (i. e. , European Americans) and/or minimizing those who are different from the dominant group† (Socha & Diggs, 1999, p.210). References Hibbler, D. K. , & Shinew, K. J. (2002). Interracial Couples’ Experience of Leisure: A Social Network Approach. Journal of Leisure Research, 34(2), 135+. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from Questia database: http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=o&d=5000783247 Korgen, K. O. (1998). From Black to Biracial: Transforming Racial Identity among Americans. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from Questia database: http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=o&d=9959531