The United States of interracial marriage
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50 years after Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving, an interracial married couple were arrested for violating Virginia’s law prohibiting marriage between Whites and “coloreds”, interracial marriages are on the rise.
The arrest of Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving of course led to the famous court case of Loving v. Virginia in which the Supreme Court ruled prohibitions against interracial marriage to be unconstitutional. The status of interracial marriages has come a long way since that time period.
Today, interracial marriage, far from being illegal is on the rise. In 2015, according to a Pew Research Center study, it was estimated, that 17% of all new marriages were interracial marriages, this is in stark contrast to the figure of 3% from 1967. As per other estimates, 11 million Americans have a spouse from an ethnicity or race different to their own. Some would say this is a living example of the existence of a post-racial America, and they would probably be correct to a certain extent. After all, marrying someone from a different ethnic or racial background certainly shows that race relations have improved.
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Some urban areas boast much higher rates of interracial marriage than others. In Honolulu, for instance, in 2015, 42% of marriages were, in fact, interracial marriages compared to 31% in Las Vegas, the Pew Research Center study shows. However, interracial marriage is far less common in Southern states such as Alabama and the Carolinas. The rates of interracial marriage vary not only by geography but also by race and gender.
The 2015 Pew Research Center study showed that Asians and Hispanics had the highest rate of intermarriage. The study also took account of gender, finding that within the African American community males are twice as likely as women to marry someone from another race. The study found that intermarriage also varies by educational status, finding that almost half of Hispanics with a Bachelor’s degree have intermarried while only 16% with a High School diploma have done so. Interestingly enough the most common form of interracial marriage is a Hispanic person marrying a White person, the study found.
Whatever the nuances of statistics on interracial marriage, one thing is for sure that it is more accepted and becoming more common in our society than ever before.
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