Interracial Marriage

Intermarriage is marriage between two individuals of different groups. Intermarriage between races is known as interracial marriage. Interracial marriage has existed but was made a public issue when there was strain in race relations in the United States. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries (and still continuing today), race was a social and political issue that created discrimination and prejudice towards minority races. The tension between races, mainly between whites and minorities, caused for laws to stop miscegenation, which is when two different races produce offspring together. These laws were upheld in most of the U.S. until Loving vs. Virginia, a 1967 Supreme Court decision that deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. The ruling in 1967 was enacted during the Civil Rights Era in the U.S., which gave activists momentum to fight for further progress with less generational time needed for attitude change. The movement towards the acceptance of interracial marriage is facilitating a reduction in prejudice and discrimination, by a change in attitudes, between races in the U.S.

The existence of interracial marriage has curtailed the time needed for attitude change. Changes in attitudes are necessary for the aforementioned reduction in prejudice and discrimination. Without interracial marriage, attitudes would have to change with generations, the generational ideology gap. As a generation dies off, a new one surfaces; the new generation takes on the ideologies of their current time. Humans are a product or their environment, thus molding them to form the attitudes surrounding them. The confining environment most importantly includes the institutions. Institutions help shape attitudes and in turn the attitudes help shape the institutions. An example being how our grandparents grew up with Jim Crow Laws, segregated schools, and racist attitudes. Their attitudes had to change somehow without generational time to modify the institutions, which that was done well by interracial marriage.

Interracial marriage most effectively contributes to changing attitudes with those closest to the couple. Families who are discriminative are forced to reconcile their racist attitudes towards their new family member. Families are forced to change because if they do not, they will lose that relationship. Most people do not put up with intolerance, so the couple will most likely excommunicate those who are. Interracial marriage causes the minds that were once closed, to open up and take on new attitudes. Even old members of the family that grew up in racist times and homes, are forced to change, in this case you can teach an old dog news tricks. Families are able to get to know the spouse not by their skin color, but by who they are. This allows them to form opinions openly and help reduce prejudice. The mere exposure effect of the spouse of another race makes you like them, and if you like them, your attitudes will change.

An example of interracial marriage that changed attitudes can be prominently seen from my family in the “country”. My grandparents and aunts and uncles grew up in a very racist environment. They would not even think of interracial marriage. People of a color other than white were rarely even seen. In recent years though, some of my cousins have married another race. Their marriage has forced my family to accept them and get beyond the color aspect. My cousins have helped reduce prejudice by simply marrying the person they love.

Interracial marriage has catalyzed attitude change towards race relations within generations. Interracial marriage is one of the ways that allowed the recent reduction in prejudice and discrimination to happen so effectively. It is important for people to get to know one another by the content of their character, for little do they know, they could end up marrying someone of another race, which directly helps decrease racial tension in the United States.