Prejudice and Interracial Marriage Essay Example

2005). ” Social psychologists define it as an attitude that may be positive or negative.

Regardless, attitudes known as prejudices are not always founded in reason. The premise of Edwards’ belief that racial marriage is better than interracial union is that it is humiliating for black persons to marry white persons because the latter have humiliated the blacks as their slave masters. Edwards writes, “Indeed, it seems almost anti-self to want to mate with someone from a culture that has historically denigrated, despised and oppressed you—and continues to do so. ” The author calls for black mothers to convince their sons to marry black girls, using testimonies of several experts in her article (Edwards).

Apart from a black magazine publisher, the author has consulted a sex therapist who reports that interracial marriages may lead to “annihilation through integration, a weakening of the culture and economic resources of the Black community (Edwards). ” Perhaps the strongest support for Edwards’ argument comes from the testimony of an academician who vows that it is only those who keep their cultures strong with racial marriage (such as the Jews) that survive in the long run (Edwards). But, it is not only the academicians, doctors or parents who may try to convince others to shun interracial union.

Owen (2002), an Australian Anglo-Celt author, who married a Malaysian with Indian and Sinhalese parents back in 1956, reports that the state may act as the most powerful source of censure. Her own marriage was considered shameful by a great many people in her community, as well as those in the community of her husband. However, when the state changed

its attitude toward interracial marriages, the communities changed their viewpoints too (Owen). Owen reports that the attitude of the state may change according to population needs.

Following London’s great plague, for example, the state had to change its attitude as rows of brand new dwellings stood empty before all eyes. Immigration become a fad at the time. Subsequently, interracial marriages became common and acceptable. Similarly, Australian policies toward immigration and interracial unions have been changing because of population needs. Between 1778 and 1990, the country was experiencing a shortage of women, and so interracial marriages were considered acceptable. But, there came a time when Chinese folks became the objects of loathing. A Chinese man’s Anglo wife was beaten up by a mob (Owen).

According to a news report of the time: “Any white woman who would marry a Chinese showed a character of such moral degradation as to warrant not the slightest confidence being placed in her evidence…(Owen: 3). ” Undoubtedly, this societal attitude placed extensive pressure on interracial couples. Interracial couples that survived the pressure had only to live through a change in governmental policies yet again (Owen). In the United States there was a ban on marriages between the whites and the blacks until the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that such bans were illegal, almost forty years ago.

Alabama happened to be the last state with a constitution that continued to forbid such interracial unions in the year 2000 (“Alabama,” 2000). According to the constitution of Alabama, there could be no proceeding “to authorize or legalize any marriage between any White person and a Negro or descendant of a

Negro (“Alabama”). ” But, in the year 2000, citizens were expected to vote to eliminate the interracial wedding ban. Despite the progressiveness of our times, polls suggested that measures would pass with stiff opposition (“Alabama”). The man who wrote the ballot proposal, a Black Democrat, stated: “It is wrong.

A person should have a choice to marry any person he wants. Interracial marriage is an individual choice and the state should not have a law to prohibit that (“Alabama”). ” When the state of Mississippi outlawed the interracial marriage ban, Roger Mills and Berta Linson were the first to enjoy a state-sanctioned union between white and black (Kirk, 2005). In spite of state approval, however, there was an “outcry sparked by the wedding (Kirk). ” According to Mills, there was a caravan of cars accompanying the couple for a mile at least. Mills and Linson divorced after having three kids together (Kirk).

Carlton (2005) reports that college students fear their families’ disapproval on the subject of interracial dating. As a matter of fact, polls have revealed that a significant number of Americans continue to “oppose interracial dating (Carlton). ” The following passage sheds more light on the subject: Rosalind Murray and John Port have been married 20 years and people still stare at them. He is white. She is black. "We still get looks, stares, the stare down," said Murray.

"The stares come from both sides, not just whites. Blacks give you the stare down. It's hard to find a place where you'd be ccepted. " Murray and Port, of Boynton Beach, married in 1987, 20 years after the U. S. Supreme

Court struck down a Virginia law that barred blacks and whites from marrying – a ruling that allowed Americans of all races to intermarry. Marriages like theirs helped change the country. Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and a black woman living in Virginia, married in Washington, D. C. in 1958 after she became pregnant. They moved back to Virginia in 1963 and police arrested them.

The Lovings were prosecuted, and a judge sentenced them to one year in jail unless they greed to leave Virginia for 25 years. …But while interracial marriages no longer face legal challenges, many couples are discriminated against or suffer social and cultural pressures, including rejection by family members, said Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld, author of The Age of Independence: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions, and the Changing American Family (Lewis, 2007). As scholars and other professionals offer various explanations for racial marriages being better than interracial unions, states may change their laws to accommodate or prohibit interracial marriages.

Lives and freedoms of individuals are positively or negatively affected by such explanations and laws. Regardless of the emphasis on education and enlightenment in our times, interracial marriages seem to be objected to by various elements of society. In this paper, we have investigated the attitudes of Asian as well as Western societies on the issue of interracial union. While it is clear that the attitude of the state has a major role in the general disapproval of interracial marriages, it is essential to bear in mind that governmental authorities are representatives of society.

Moreover, we have learned that society may continue to look down upon interracial

unions even after the state has outlawed bans on interracial marriages. Thus, the theory of racism continues to be applied to a matter of choice, that is, marriage. Regardless of the choice made by two people from different ethnicities to stay committed to each other for the remainder of their lives, society may continue to look down upon their union. Even though many interracial partners, such as Owen and her husband, have survived cultural pressure, there may be countless interracial relationships that do not survive it.

Mills and Linson, who were followed by a caravan of cars filled with spectators after the first state-sanctioned interracial marriage in Mississippi, had a divorce. Although the present research did not compare the divorce rate of interracial couples with the rate of divorce among partners belonging to the same ethnic group, it may be deduced that cultural pressure against interracial marriages puts unnecessary strain on such marriages. Still, marriage would remain a matter of choice, in addition to a matter of love.