Interracial Marriages And Cross Racial Families example essay topic

Introduction An issue covered in this report is well known and questioned by a variety of people and cultures. Why does interracial marriage occurs and how does it affect the family structure? Is interracial marriage appropriate in the face of society? Questions as such go thought each individual mind, as we happen to notice a family of two cross-raced couple with mixed-raced children. It seems as thought the people around define this issue as a sinful disorder. However, does our society see it this way?

Several topics discussed below will help to identify the true meaning behind interracial marriage and cross-racial families. How did it happen? It's a surprise to hear that interracial marriage goes back long before history. Yes, it existed far in the cities of Portugal, in the desserts of Egypt and in the hills of Ethiopia. Early-sixteenth-century explorers in upper Guinea and Goa married native women or had them as long-term concubines, fathered mulatto children and largely assimilated into their way of life.

For them, marriage between the races was a mark of equality. This all changed when Elizabeth I began to deport Blacks from England because they were seen as a 'problem' due to marrying poor or 'fallen' white women who gave birth to children 'dirty as coal'. The children seemed to adapt to their father's culture, rather then white English ethnicity. Many white men indulged their sexual passion with Black female slaves. This resulted in anger over sexual tendency amongst white females who compounded their fury on their slaves.

(Alibhai-Brown, Montague) For a long time, the Blacks tried to live up to their expectations and were taught that color of their skin was a disease to a white man's blood. In 1781, a ferocious soldier proved to the court of England that by swallowing his lover's 'Black' blood did not cause any potential damage. Two centuries later, more racial lies were spread in the article written by English churchman, who states that 'The irresponsibility of a Negro and the fatalism of the Asian will have passed into (white) make up and we shall never be the same again. ' A cross-racial marriage was defined as unknown state of human consciousness, like the becoming of a vegetarian to a cannibal.

Nothing regarding mixed race marriage was ever mentioned in biblical writings, but everyone assumed it was sin to consider it normal. A Tennessee judge wrote that if mixed-race marriage were legalized, ' [the next thing we know] we might have the father living with his daughter, the son with the mother, the brother with his sister... ' (Padawer) In the past, people had the same view about masturbation, yet they came to conclusions that such act was complete and genetically influenced by our bodies, and so, people eventually began to change their mind about a white girl and a black man marrying each other. In the present, it is clear that there are many and increasing numbers of relationships and marriages that are crossing racial boundaries. In the 1985, OPC S Labour Force survey showed that 27% of Black British husbands and 14% of Black women are in mixed-racial marriages. In the Asian community, 10% of men and 5% of women are in mixed-racial marriages.

Their lives were shaped by many different factors, such as class, economic status, racism in society, the rise of Blacks in politics, changes in education, culture and religion. (Alibhai-Brown & Montague) Interracial Relationship If two people love, respect and understand each other, what could possibly get in their way? The reality is - love and all other emotional impact is not enough for two people to build a relationship. It gets even harder when it comes down to two completely opposite people, not necessarily by personality, but by skin colour and ethnicity. Many relationships can't survive without people giving in and trying to face all the racism, prejudice and hatred from inside, as well as outside of the family. As one white woman says 'There were different expectations because of the background - deep down he wanted to see me as a typical Indian woman, if there is such a thing' describing her x-husband's ways who was an Indian man.

(Alibhai-Brown & Montague) This proves that his identity has somehow penetrated thought her skin, providing hope for some sort of evolution. Society's influence and peer pressure changed some views on Black men in the 1940 and 50's. It was certainly allowed for a Black man to engage in a relationship with a white or other colour woman, however, people had doubts that the relationship could ever last. One lady mentions that 'It used to worry me that if they knew I was going with a Black man they might think that I was a loose kind of a girl... only trash, or a white girl who couldn't find herself a decent white man. ' (Alibhai-Brown & Montague) However, both she and her husband learned to overcome the peer pressure and rude comments from strangers and see their family complete like any other. On the other hand, church leaders teach that successful marriage is most likely to occur when the participants are of the same racial background generally, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background.

(Walsh) It is up to each individual to decide whether the cultural differences in interracial relationships is significant or not. The solution will vary by culture and the people involved. For example, in Bosnia, an Ethnic Albanian and a Serbian who married would unlikely be accepted by either ethnic group. Studies show that a mixed race couple from one culture might get along better than two people of the same ethnic background, but raised in different cultures.

Issues on mixed-raced families There are an increasing number of families in United States and Canada composed of people from different races and cultural backgrounds. Like all the other families, mixed-race families can be healthy, depending on the way each family member is treated - with love, respect, compassion and communication. (Presma & Edelson). On the top of that, mixed-racial families face additional set of issues such as the quality of a person based on his / her personality, rather then outside image.

In 1960 there were about 51,000 black-white married couples in the United States and by 1998 the number had reached 330,000. Previously, the new couples in mixed marriages tended to be older than other brides and grooms. In recent years, however, couples in mixed marriages seem to be marrying younger and seem more eager to have children and to pursue all the other "normal" activities that married life offers. In 1998, when 330,000 black-white couples were married, the Black-White marriage market appeared to be greater than that of other people of color - much larger percentages of Native Americans and Asian - Americans married whites. According to 1990 Census data, in the ages 25-34, 36% of U.S. -born Asian-American husbands and 45% of U.S. -born Asian-American wives had white spouses; 53% percent of Native American husbands and 54% of Native American wives had white spouses. Only 8% of African-American husbands and 4% of African-American wives had white spouses.

(Kennedy) Even now a wide spread of social pressures continue to make white-black marriages more difficult and thus less frequent than other interracial marriages. Hence, once the family is formed, what happens next? It's the concept of placing your identity to the right ethnicity. It is hard to identify racial ethnicity within a family, especially by a child. Parental and extended family influenced the family structure, therefore giving the child an opportunity to discover hi / her own self of identity. In other cases, one race had to adapt to the other, or both equaled out each other.

It was also important to understand how the outside world would view the family. (Presma & Edelson). Would the society accept them as a Black, White or Asian family? In overall, racial identity within a family was a complete personal experience.

Maria P.P. Root, a psychologist specializing in multiracial issues, says that as immigration and mixed-race marriages increase, the multiracial population will continue to increase as well. (Parvaz) It makes perfect sense then for the younger generation to feel at ease in their mixed-race identities and especially of their mixed-racial parents. Children have learned to accept who they are and how to let 'race's tep aside. Perhaps if the child were the only 'one' coming from a cross-racial marriage, then he / she would not feel as comfortable in a society surrounded by same-race couples as he / she feels today, in a society overflowing with cross-racial, religious and cultural families. Conclusion A key theme of this report is the issue raised across interracial marriages and cross-racial families. This is a common and growing trend in American and Canadian societies especially, due to multiculturalism.

Analysis of cross-racial marriage history provides with further understanding why many people and groups of people still do not accept cross-racial marriages today. However, such issues are in the past, and must be confronted with the face of reality. History cannot be changed, but it can be made different from wrong. Many people engaged in cross-racial marriages today have finally come to an understanding that to keep their family stable, they must accept raised issues on their family status.

Children coming from cross-racial families have to accept their ethnicity and see themselves of who they are, not based on their skin color or the color of the skin of their parents. Hence, those persons most welcoming of interracial marriage are also those who have most embraced racial justice, a healthy respect for individualism and a belief in 'oneness' of humanity.

Bibliography

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown & Anne Montague; The Colour of Love, Virago Press, 1992.
G.N. Ram; Marriage and the Family in Canada Today; Department of Sociology- University of Manitoba, 1989.
Frances Presma & Paula Edelson; Today's Families, Facts on File Inc. (1999).
Randal Kennedy; Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption, 2002.
John Walsh (editor); President Spencer W. Kimball, Quoted in FARMS, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 7, Number 2, p. 68. D. Parvaz; Cool Shades as Today's Youth Grow up, they bring with them a new rule: Race doesn't matter that much anymore, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 04-20-2001, pp C 1.
Ruth Padawer; Marriage redefined? , The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 08-25-2002, pp O 01.
Beth Day; Sexual Life between Blacks and Whites, Collins, London, 1974.
Anne Wilson, Mixed Race Children: A study of Identity, Allen & Unwin, London, 1987.
Lise Funder burg; Black, white, other: biracial Americans talk about race and identity. New York: William Morrow, 1994.