My uncle, Peter, got married over the weekend to his new wife, Anna, and although Peter and Anna are both Asian, their wedding led me to think about interracial marriage. Some questions that posed in my mind were: What if Anna was Caucasian? Is interracial marriage more common than marriage between people of the same race?
I did a little research and found that the Pew Research Center did a study of interracial marriages in 2010. Of the 2,096,000 marriages in 2010, about 275,500 were interracial, and 192,850 of those interracial marriages had a Caucasian partner. I found it interesting when The New Observer stated "White Americans are statistically the least likely to marry outside of their race, although because of their numbers, are involved in...interracial marriages more than any other group." Why are White Americans "least likely" to marry outside of their race?
Most people would agree that interracial marriage has increased tremendously throughout history. A 2013 GALLUP poll says that 87% of the 4,373 Americans surveyed approve of interracial marriage. This is a huge jump from the 4% that approved in 1958.
A sociology professor at Cornell University says that "The rise in interracial marriage indicates that race relations have improved over the past quarter century."
What are your thoughts on this quote? Do you think that relations between different races in the U.S. have really improved? Why or why not? What do you think about interracial marriage in general? Approve or disapprove?
Links to all the articles can be found here:
The New Observer, GALLUP, NY Daily News
I agree with the quote and I feel that the general public's tolerance and acceptance of different races and cultures has increased tremendously over the past few years. I know that intermarriage can often still be a very touchy subject, however, more and more people seem to be accepting of it. I definitely support people who want to marry out of their race.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the drastic increase of approval definitely shows America's improved race relations, the numbers you gave were still very surprising to me. In 2013, only 87% of people surveyed approve of interracial marriage?? While this may seem like an amazing feat compared to 1958's 4%, the fact that 13% of Americans still don't approve of interracial marriage is sickening to me. I would have assumed a much higher percentage, considering the huge strides our country has made towards racial equality. I think that this just goes to show that even though we have definitely become more accepting since the mid 1900s, our country still has a ways to go.
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