Interracial marriages
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Othello and Desdemona from William Shakespeare's Othello, a play concerning a biracial couple.

Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy (marrying outside of one's social group) and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation (mixing of different racial groups in marriage, cohabitation, or sexual relations).

Legality of interracial marriage

Main article: Anti-miscegenation laws

While it is now legal in most countries, certain jurisdictions have had regulations banning or restricting interracial marriage in the past. These included South Africa under apartheid; Germany in the Nazi period; and many states of the United States, particularly in the South. In both Nazi Germany and certain American states, such laws have been closely linked to eugenics programs^[1].

United States

See also: Race (United States Census)

The plaintiffs in Loving v. Virginia, Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving

In Social Trends in America and Strategic Approaches to the Negro Problem (1948), Gunnar Myrdal ranked the social areas where restrictions were imposed by Southern whites on the freedom of African-Americans through racial segregation from the least to the most important: jobs, courts and police, politics, basic public facilities, "social equality" including dancing, handshaking, and most important, marriage. This ranking scheme seems to explain the way in which the barriers against desegregation fell. Of less importance was the segregation in basic public facilities, which was abolished with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most tenacious form of legal segregation, the banning of interracial marriage, was not fully lifted until the last anti-miscegenation laws were struck down in 1967 by the Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia.

Statistics

The number of interracial marriages in the United States has been on the rise: from 310,000 in 1970, to 651,000 in 1980, and 1,161,000 in 1992, according to the US Census of 1993. Interracial marriages represented 0.7% of all marriages in 1970, rising to 1.3% in 1980 and 2.2% in 1992. With the introduction of the mixed-race category, the 2000 census revealed interracial marriage to be somewhat more widespread, with 2,669,558 interracial marriages recorded, or 4.9% of all marriages.^[2]. It should be noted that these statistics do not take into account ethnic groups within the same broad categories - for example a marriage involving a person of Japanese origin and a person of Indian origin would not be considered 'mixed'. Nor is hispanic status taken into account^[2].

Based on these statistics:

• Whites are the least likely to marry interracially, although in absolute terms whites are involved in interracial marriages more than any other racial group. 1.9% of married white women and 2.2% of married white men have a non-white spouse. 1.0% of married white men are married to an Asian woman, and 1.0% of married white women are married to a man classified as "other".
• 3.7% of married black women and 8.4% of married black men have a non-black spouse. 6.6% of married black men, and 2.8% of married black women, have a white spouse. Only 0.1% of married black women are married to an Asian man, representing the least represented marital combination.
• 19.5% of married Asian women and 7.2% of married Asian men have a non-Asian spouse. 17.1% of married Asian women are married to a white spouse, and 3.5% of married Asian men have a spouse woman classified as "other".
• There is a notable disparity in the rates of exogamy by Asian males and females. Only 25% of Asian/white marriages involve an Asian male and white female, and only 15% Asian/black marriages involve an Asian male and a black female.

Benefits of interracial marriage to the United States

"The racial divide in the U.S. is a fundamental divide. ... but when you have the 'other' in your own family, it’s hard to think of them as 'other' anymore. We see a blurring of the old lines, and that has to be a good thing." Michael Rosenfeld, Stanford University Sociologist^[4]

"I think the children of [interracial] families like ours will be able to make a difference in the world, and do things we weren’t able to do. It’s really important to put all their cultures together, to be aware of their roots, so they grow up not just as Swedish or Haitian or American, but as global citizens." Michelle Cadeau^[4]

"[A]gainst the tragic backdrop of American history, the flowering of multiracial intimacy is a profoundly moving and encouraging development." Kelley Kenney, Kutztown University Professor^[4]

Opinions on interracial marriage by youth generation

"[T]oday, not only is it legal to be in a mixed relationship, but to some degree it’s expected—especially among younger generations. More than one-fifth of all Americans have a close relative married to someone of another race, and 91 percent of Generation Y-ers say interracial dating is perfectly normal."^[5][6].

Interracial marriage by pairing

Native American and Asian

Filipino Americans have frequently married Native American and Alaskan Native people. In the 17th century, when Filipinos were under Spanish rule, the Spanish colonists ensured a Filipino trade between the Philippines and the Americas. When the Mexicans revolted against the Spanish, the Filipinos first escaped into Mexico, then traveled to Louisiana, where the exclusively male Filipinos married Native American women. In the 1920s, Filipino American communities grew in Alaska, and Filipino American men married Alaskan Native women^[7]. On the west coast, Filipino Americans married Native American women in Bainbridge Island Washington^[7]. There was a frequency of racial intermarriage between Japanese Americans and Cherokee Indians in California during the 1930s, since these ethnic groups were introduced or hired as farm laborers and they had been in high contact with each other.^{citation needed} "[W]hile in the 1920s Japanese men married Eskimo women throughout western Alaska^[8]

Asian and White

Marriages between whites and Asians are becoming increasingly common for both genders (Lange, 2005). In 1990, about 69 percent of married 18-30 year-old Asian women were married to Asian men, while 25 percent of married Asian women had white husbands^[9]. In 2006, 50 percent of American-bred Asian women were married to Asian men, while 41 percent of American-bred Asian women had white husbands. 60 percent of American-bred Asian men were married to Asian women, while 30 percent of American-bred Asian men had white wives (2006 U.S. Census Bureau). C.N. Le estimated that the gender gap is smaller among the American-born or 1.5 generation Asian Americans.^[10] Asian Americans of both genders who are U.S.-raised are much more likely to be married with whites than their non-U.S.-raised counterparts. Not all Asian ethnicities have similar intermarriage patterns, for instance, South Asian Americans were overwhelmingly endogamous, with a small amount of outmarriage to other ethnic groups. The interracial marriage disparity for South Asian Americans was low with outmarriage to whites slightly higher for Indian American males whereas all other major Asian groups had more outmarriage for women^[10]. A 2001 U.S. national survey conducted by Yankelovich Partners in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League indicated that 24% of the respondents disapprove of marriage with an Asian American. ^[11]

Black and White

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen and journalist Janet Langhart, one of the more prominent interracial couples in the U.S. Langhart is herself biracial.

Although mixed-race partnering has increased, the United States still shows disparities between African American male and African American female endogamy statistics. The 1990 census reports that 17.6% of African American marriages occur with White Americans. Yet, African American men are 2.6 times more likely to be married to White American women than African American women to White American men. In the 2000 census, 239,477 African American male to White American female and 95,831 White American male to African American female marriages were recorded, again showing the 2.5-1 ratio. In 2007, 4.6% of married African Americans were married to a white partner, and 0.4% of married White Americans were married to an African American^[12].

Asian and Black

With African Americans and Asian Americans, the ratios are even further imbalanced, with 598% more Asian female/Black male marriages than Asian male/Black female marriages. ^[2] However, C.N. Le estimated that Asian Americans of the 1.5 generation and of the five largest Asian American ethnic groups had black male/Asian female marriages 272% more than Asian male/black female relationships.^[10] Even though the disparity between Black and Asian interracial marriages by gender is high according to the 2000 US Census, ^[2] the total numbers of Asian/Black interracial marriages are low, numbering only 0.22% percent for Asian male marriages and 1.30% percent of Asian female marriages, partially contributed by the recent flux of Asian immigrants.

A Filipina bride and Nigerian groom walk down the aisle.

Historically, Chinese American men married African American women in high proportions to their total marriage numbers due to few Chinese American women being in the United States. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many Chinese people immigrated to the American South, particularly Arkansas, to work on plantations. The tenth US Census of Louisiana counted 57% of interracial marriages between these Chinese Americans to be with African Americans and 43% to be with White American women. After the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese American men had fewer potential Chinese American wives, so they increasingly married African American women on the West Coast^[13]. In Jamaica and other Caribbean nations as well many Chinese males over past generations took up Black female wives gradually assimilating or absorbing many Chinese descendants into the black community or the overall mixed-race community.

Native American and White

The interracial disparity for Native Americans is low. According to the 1990 US Census (which only counts indigenous people with US-government-recognized tribal affiliation), Native American women intermarried white Americans 2% more than Native American men married White women^[14]. Historically, in Latin America, and to a lesser degree in Anglo America, these groups have intermarried at very high rates. Many countries in Latin America have large Mestizo populations and in many cases mestizos are the largest ethnic group in their respective countries.

Marriage squeeze

A new term has arisen to describe the social phenomenon of the so-called "marriage squeeze" for African American females^[15]. The marriage squeeze refers to the belief that the most eligible and desirable African American men are marrying non-African American women, leaving those African American women who wish to marry African American men with fewer partnering options. According to Newsweek, 43% of black women between the ages of 30-34 have never been married^[16]. Several explanations of this phenomenon have been advanced. It may be due to the lingering effects of social ostracism to which white American men who married African American women were subjected in the past. A 2006 survey found that the number of white Americans would consider marrying across the colour line is one in five^[17]. It may also be the result of a desire among African American women to marry African American men due to concepts such as racial loyalty, and the internalized stereotypical belief that non-African American men would not find them attractive.^[17] There is also the lingering belief that negative social stereotypes preclude them being viewed as anything but sexual objects by non-African American men.^[17] Lastly, there is a desire among educated women of all races to "marry up" or at least within their social and economic class. Some claim that black women often face either "marrying down" or not marrying at all, when they choose to restrict their marriage prospects to African American men^[18]. Also, rates of incarceration for marriage age African American males are far higher than rates for females, further contributing to the male/female gap. As of 2002, 10.4% of all black males between the ages of 25 and 29 were sentenced and in prison. ^[19] The African American male-female disparity is highest between the ages of 25 – 29, when for every two African American men there are nearly three African American women. ^[20]

Education and interracial marriage

Using PUMS data from both the 1980 and 1990 US Census to determine trends within interracial marriage among white Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans, it may be seen that endogamy (marrying within race) was more prevalent for African American men at lower education levels.

In 1980, the numbers were as follows: African American males without a high-school diploma participated in endogamy at 96.5%; for those who received a high-school diploma, 95.6%; for those with a college degree and above, the percentage of endogamy dropped to 94.0%. However, the rates for African American women changed very little with different educational levels. For the African American woman who had not received a high school diploma the rate was 98.7%, high school diploma was 98.6%, with some college it was 98.2%, and college degree or higher, 98.5%. During this time there was a significant increase in marriages between whites and African Americans, maintaining that African Americans are most likely to marry whites over other groups.

The 1990 results show that rates of endogamy dropped for both males and females, albeit more for the African American male. In 1990, an African American male with a college degree and more was participating in endogamy at 90.4%; for an African American female with the same educational level, 96.4%. The results for the propensity of individuals at higher educational attainment levels to participate less in endogamy over the 10-year period were similar across races, including whites, Hispanics, and Asian Americans.

Immigrants and interracial marriage

Racial endogamy is much stronger for immigrants as compared to natives.^[21] Immigrants of African descent are 4.9 times more likely than African Americans to marry interracially.^{citation needed} Additionally, immigrants of African descent have the highest rates of endogamy of immigrants. Also, African immigrants are much more likely to marry other same-race immigrants and African Americans, than to out-marry racially. Native-born white Americans are also 1.6 times more likely to marry a native-born black American than an immigrant of African descent. Female immigrants of African descent are generally more likely to marry native-born whites than their male counterparts.

Interracial marriage versus cohabitation

Rates of interracial cohabitation are significantly higher than those of marriage. Although only 7 percent of married black men have white wives, 13 percent of cohabitating black men have white partners. 25 percent of married Asian women have white spouses, but 45 percent of cohabitating Asian women are with white men—higher than the percentage cohabitating with Asian men (44 percent)^[9]. These numbers suggest that the prevalence of intimate interracial contact is greatly underestimated when one focuses only on marriage data.^[9]

Canada

"Canadians do appear more accepting of interracial relations than Americans. According to a poll in the mid-1990s, 87% of Canadians approved of marriages between whites and minorities. While this survey didn’t specify the respondents’ race, another conducted ten years earlier with French Canadian whites showed 88% to be in favor of black-white marriages" Emily Monroy ^[22].

Africa

Indian men have married many African women in Africa. Indians have long been traders in East Africa. The British Empire brought workers into East Africa to build the Uganda Railway. Indians eventually populated South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Rhodesia and Zaire in small numbers. These interracial unions were mostly unilateral marriages between Indian men and East African women^[23].

Australia

See also: Demographics of Australia

In 2005 there were slightly more marriages by Australian resident women (13,079) to foreign born partners than Australian resident men (12,714). Australian born males and female residents who married that year were most likely to have married an Australian-born partner (84.1% of marriages involving Australian men; 83.7% of marriages involving Australian females). Male Australian residents who were born in China and were married in 2005 were least likely to have married an Australian-born resident (only 3.1% of marriages involving a Chinese born groom were to an Australian-born bride). Female Australian residents who were born in Vietnam and were married in 2005 were least likely to have married an Australian-born resident (only 15.7% of marriages involving a Vietnamese born bride were to an Australian-born groom). Only 8.8% of males, and 11% of females, who were American born, Australian resident and married in 2005, married another person from the United States.

In terms of variance between brides and grooms from particular countries in marrying native Australians, 36.7% of brides but only 7.9% of grooms born in countries defined as 'North Asia' (Japan and Korea) who married in 2005 did so to an Australian-born partner. Conversely, 64.1% of grooms but only 43.8% of brides born in Lebanon who married in 2005 did so to an Australian-born partner^[24].

Japan

In 2003 there were 36,039 international marriages between Japanese and non-Japanese in Japan - about one out of twenty marriages. About 80% of these interracial marriages involved a Japanese male marrying a foreign female (predominantly Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Thai and Brazilian), and 20% involve marriage to a foreign husband (predominantly Korean, American, Chinese, British and Brazilian)^[25].

South Korea

International marriages now make up 13 percent of all marriages in Korea. Most of these marriages are unions between a Korean male and a foreign female (mostly from Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and China) ^[26].

New Zealand

Interracial marriage has been common in New Zealand since the first full-scale contact between Maori and Europeans in the early 1840s. Racial mingling has been so extensive that most Maori are now of mixed blood. Statistics are not available, because the government does not keep statistics on interraccial marriage or the "percentage" of a person's ethnic makeup.^{citation needed}

United Kingdom

See also: United Kingdom Census 2001

As of 2001, 2% of all UK marriages are interethnic. Despite having a much lower non-white population (9%), mixed marriages are as common as in the United States^[27]. New Studies are being conducted by London South Bank University called Parenting 'Mixed' Children: Negotiating Difference and Belonging^[28][29].

Interracial marriage disparities for certain groups

According to the UK 2001 census ^[27], Black British males were around 50% more likely than black females to marry outside their race, whereas British Chinese women (30%) were twice as likely as their male counterparts (15%) to marry someone from a different ethnic group. Among British Asians, males were twice as likely to have an inter-ethnic marriage than their female counterparts.

Case of Seretse Khama

In 1948, an international incident was created when the British government took exception to the marriage of Seretse Khama, kgosi (king) of the Bamangwato people of what was then the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, to an English woman, Ruth Williams, whom he had met while studying law in London. The interracial marriage sparked a furore among both the tribal elders of the Bamangwato and the apartheid government of South Africa, who could not afford to have an interracial couple ruling just across their northern border, and who therefore immediately exerted pressure to have Khama removed from his chieftainship. Britain’s Labour government, then heavily in debt from World War II, could not afford to lose cheap South African gold and uranium supplies. There was also a fear that South Africa might take more direct action against Bechuanaland, through economic sanctions or a military incursion.^[30][31] The British government therefore launched a parliamentary enquiry into Khama’s fitness for the chieftainship. Though the investigation reported that he was in fact eminently fit for the rule of Bechuanaland, "but for his unfortunate marriage",^[32] the government ordered the report suppressed (it would remain so for thirty years), and exiled Khama and his wife from Bechuanaland in 1951. It took many years of exile before the couple was allowed to live in Africa, and several more years before Khama became president of what is now Botswana. Their son Ian Khama is presently the president of Botswana.

References

External links

• loving day

See also

• Miscegenation
• Interracial pornography
• Mixed Race Day
• Loving Day
• Biracial American
• Multiracial
• The Race of the Future
• The Adventure of the Yellow Face
• Transnational marriage