tagged w/ Interracial Relationships
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You’re excited (and maybe a bit nervous) to be going out on your first date with someone new. Before you go, consider this list of things to look for—some are promising indicators of a great connection in the making, and others can be reason to make the first date your last.You’re excited (and maybe a bit nervous) to be going out on your first date with... more
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Most people believe that when a person has an affair, they have fallen out of love. Not necessarily so. However, if both of you had signed up for a monogamous relationship, then cheating does mean one thing for sure....Most people believe that when a person has an affair, they have fallen out of love.... more
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In the present economic climate, everyone is looking for ways to save money. That doesn’t mean you have to give up on romance! Dating doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavour. In times like these, it’s the simpler things in life that we learn to really appreciate.In the present economic climate, everyone is looking for ways to save money. That... more
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There are these interracial couples that walk around arm in arm, all smiles, looking into each others eyes...so in love.There are these interracial couples that walk around arm in arm, all smiles, looking... more
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When a person has parents that come from different racial backgrounds, he or she is considered multiracial.When a person has parents that come from different racial backgrounds, he or she is... more
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Couples who have been married for long find themselves resisting sexual eroticism. Its even harder when one spouse want to keep the lust alive and the other just wants to keep love making simple. For most, caring deeply about a spouse takes lust from the whole equationCouples who have been married for long find themselves resisting sexual eroticism. Its... more
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He took a lot of pictures of me during our trip to Atlantic City, the weekend before he was moving back home to Southeastern Europe. Little did I know, the brilliance that would come of it.He took a lot of pictures of me during our trip to Atlantic City, the weekend before... more
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By Stephanie Chen, CNN
June 4, 2010 3:29 p.m. EDT
Photo: Priya Merrill, 27, and husband Andrew Merrill, 30, married in August. They are part of a growing trend of interracial marriages.
(CNN) -- The first time Priya Merrill, who is Indian, brought her white boyfriend home for Thanksgiving in 2007, the dinner was uncomfortable and confusing. She still remembers her family asking if Andrew was the bartender or a family photographer.
The couple married last August, and her Indian family has warmed up to her husband despite their racial differences.
"I think we get the best of both cultures," said Merrill, 27, of New York. She added, "Sometimes I just forget that we're interracial. I don't really think about it."
Asian. White. Black. Hispanic. Do race and ethnicity matter when it comes to marriage?
Apparently, race is mattering less these days, say researchers at the Pew Research Center, who report that nearly one out of seven new marriages in the U.S. is interracial or interethnic. The report released Friday, which interviewed couples married for less than a year, found racial lines are blurring as more people choose to marry outside their race.
"From what we can tell, this is the highest [percentage of interracial marriage] it has ever been," said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer for the Pew Research Center.
He said interracial marriages have soared since the 1980s. About 6.8 percent of newly married couples reported marrying outside their race or ethnicity in 1980. That figure jumped to about 14.6 percent in the Pew report released this week, which surveyed newlyweds in 2008.
From what we can tell, this is the highest [level of interracial marriage] it has ever been.
--Jeffrey Passel, Pew senior demographer
Couples pushing racial boundaries have become commonplace in the U.S., a trend that is also noticeable in Hollywood and politics. President Obama is the product of a black father from Africa and a white mother from Kansas. Supermodel Heidi Klum, who is white, married Seal, a British singer who is black.
But not everyone is willing to accept mixed-race marriages. A Louisiana justice of the peace resigned late last year after refusing to marry an interracial couple.
However, studies show that support for interracial marriages is stronger than in the past, especially among the Millennial generation. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, about 85 percent accept interracial marriages, according to a Pew study published in February. Scholars say interracial marriages are important to examine because they can be a barometer for race relations and cultural assimilation.
Today's growing acceptance of interracial marriages is a contrast to the overwhelming attitudes 50 years ago that such marriage was wrong -- and even illegal. During most of U.S. history, interracial marriages have been banned or considered taboo, sociologists say.
In 1958, a woman of black and Native American descent named Mildred Jeter had married a white man, Richard Loving. The couple married in Washington, D.C., instead of their home state of Virginia, where state laws outlawed interracial marriages. The couple was arrested by police. Their case made its way to the Supreme Court in the case Loving vs. Virginia in 1967, where the justices unanimously ruled that laws banning interracial marriages were unconstitutional.
In the decades after the court's ruling, the U.S. population has been changed by an unprecedented influx of immigrants. The growing numbers of immigrants, said Pew researchers, is partially responsible for the increase in interracial marriages.
The Pew Center study released Friday found that marrying outside of one's race or ethnicity is most common among Asians and Hispanics, two immigrant groups that have grown tremendously. About 30 percent of Asian newlyweds in the study married outside of their race, and about a quarter of Hispanic newlyweds reported marrying someone of another race.
David Chen, 26, of Dallas, Texas, is Taiwanese. He is planning a wedding with his fiancee, Sylvia Duran, 26, who is Mexican. He says race isn't an issue, but parts of their culture do play a role in their relationship. They will probably have a traditional Chinese tea ceremony at their wedding.
"The thing that we really focus on is our values and family values," instead of their race, he said. "We both like hard work, and we really put a focus on education."
The African-American population also saw increases in interracial marriage, with the number of blacks participating in such marriages roughly tripling since 1980, the study said. About 16 percent of African-Americans overall are in an interracial marriage, but researchers point out a gender difference: It's more common for black men to marry outside of their race than for black women.
The gender difference was the reverse in the Asian population surveyed. Twice as many newlywed Asian women, about 40 percent, were married outside their race, compared with Asian men, at about 20 percent.
"We are seeing an increasingly multiracial and multiethnic country," said Andrew Cherlin, professor of public policy and sociology at Johns Hopkins University. "The change in our population is bringing more people into contact with others who aren't like them."
The Pew Center also found education and residency affected whether people married interracially, with college-educated adults being more likely to do so. More people who live in the West marry outside their race than do people in the Midwest and South, the survey found.
Cherlin explained why education has helped bridge various races and ethnic groups: With more minorities attending college, education, rather than race, becomes a common thread holding couples together.
"If I'm a college graduate, I am going to marry another graduate," Cherlin said. "It's of secondary importance if that person is my race."
We are seeing an increasingly multiracial and multiethnic country.
--Andrew Cherlin, professor at Johns Hopkins University
Technology is also making it easier for people to date outside their races, said Sam Yagan, who founded OkCupid.com, a free Internet dating site. He said his site, which receives 4 million unique visitors a month, has seen many interracial relationships result from people using its services.
Adriano Schultz, 26, who is Brazilian, met his wife, Theresa, who is white, through the site in 2006. A year later, the couple married.
"I don't feel as if ethnicity for us was a big issue," said Schultz, of Indiana. "It was more about personalities and having things in common that really drove us together."
Yagan attributes the increase in interracial relationships to the Internet, which makes it easier to connect with someone of a different race. People who live in a community where race is an issue can meet someone of another race more privately, than say, instead of having to start their relationship in a public setting.
"You don't have to worry about what your friends are going to think," he said. "You can build the early parts of the relationship."By Stephanie Chen, CNN
June 4, 2010 3:29 p.m. EDT
Photo: Priya Merrill, 27, and... more
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An interracial couple was denied a marriage license by a Louisiana Justice of the Peace, Keith Bardwell. His reason, out of concern for the children the couple might have.
#1 I didn't think that was legal.
#2 How dare he!
How can you decided because a couple is of different races that the marriage won't work, & the children are doomed? There are plenty of couples of the same race that don't make it & have messed up kids. It's not his call as to who gets married & who doesn't. I just didn't think in this day and age, that this was still going on. When things like this happen, that's when I feel we can't move forward as a country. People are holding on to old world thinking. Not to mention, that our own country views the south as backwater and sometimes racist, and this is another incident that proves it.
Not all marriages last, that's a fact, but some good people that have changed the world came from that union----Halle Berry, President Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter & Mariah carey, to name a few. Love doesn't know race, nor does it judge. We shouldn't either.An interracial couple was denied a marriage license by a Louisiana Justice of the... more
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Biases and prejudices blind those who should be sharing their love. If we could just see people’s inner beauty instead of concentrating on their outer appearance.Biases and prejudices blind those who should be sharing their love. If we could just... more
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It's hard when you don't look like your partner.
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Jenn Themelis is part of an interracial couple, and they get compared to food a lot.
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Future generations of Britons looking at race through a different lens thanks to interacial dating. Will more high profile mixed race people like Barack Obama also help to change what is considered black around the world?
image via http://nescafe.deviantart.com/Future generations of Britons looking at race through a different lens thanks to... more
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It’s the nasty celebrity relationship that not even the tabloids have caught onto yet, says renown gossip columnist & celebrity snitch Clarence Starr. “It may be the nastiest of them all.”It’s the nasty celebrity relationship that not even the tabloids have caught... more
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Sam Jackson is in a theatre near you in Lakeveiw Terrace and (spoiler alert!) he plays a cop who doesn’t like interracial relationships, and it makes you wonder if interracial relationship are still taboo. There have been plenty of films made about the subject, from Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner to Jungle Fever and Something Different, and they all have different takes that screen as hopeful and optimistic. But in reality, some Black people still have a problem with interracial dating. This could largely be regional: it’s common-place and casual to see interracial couples on the coast, but in the North and South, it can still provoke stares and snide comments. People also still believe that Black men choose White women as a sign of upward mobility. Sports figure are said to marry White women exclusively, but we can prove that isn’t true. Doesn’t matter. There is also some idea that Black men tend to date outside of their race more than any other. I don’t know that this has any truth to it at all, but Black men with White women tend to be more conspicuous and scrutinized differently than Black women with White men.
The biracial children that these couples often produce also have a hard way to go: they sometime struggle to find an identity in a country where so much is predicated by race. Having Sen. Barack Obama, a biracial man, run for president could change attitudes about it, but it may be too soon to know. What do you think?Sam Jackson is in a theatre near you in Lakeveiw Terrace and (spoiler alert!) he plays... more
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