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
