Interracial marriage: More accepted, still growing
Editorial:
From the article:
...
Research has found young adults today have more friends of diverse racial backgrounds than past generations and are more willing to have relationships with those of other races and cultures. "We do not feel a need to be diverse, and we do not seek out relationships for that purpose. It is just who we are," says Jess Rainer inThe Millennials, a book he co-authored about his peers born between the early 1980s and 2000.
So it's no surprise that greater numbers today are "marrying out," meaning outside of their race. The percentage was 14.6% in 2008, up from 6.7% in 1980, according to a new analysis of Census data by researchers at Ohio State University and Cornell University. The data include only married couples, not the growing segment of unmarried cohabiters; experts expect the intermarriage trend to continue as some of those mixed-race couples head to the altar. An estimated 4.5 million married couples in the USA are interracial, according to 2011 Census data released last week from the Current Population Survey.
A USA TODAY/Gallup poll released in September found that 86% of Americans approve of black-white marriages, compared with 48% in 1991. Among ages 18-37, 97% approved.
"Where you live, your education level, where you work and where you go to school determine the pool of partners that we have," says Ruth Zambrana, director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Marrying later matters
One reason for the rising number of interracial unions is that the "balance of power" between young adults and their parents has changed a lot, says Michael Rosenfeld, associate professor of sociology at Stanford University in California. "The family of origin's ability to constrain who you marry has dramatically declined; that's one of the reasons we have so much more family diversity, including interracial diversity."
Older average ages for first marriage (now 28.7 for men, 26.7 for women) also have fueled more mixing, Rosenfeld says. People at 28 "have an education and a job and are pretty independent. If they choose a partner and if Grandma does not want to talk to them anymore, that's Grandma's problem." Parents "have to adapt to whatever partner their child chooses."
Mixed-race relationships are still more common among gay than heterosexual couples, and unmarried heterosexual couples are more likely to be interracial than married ones, because families create an "extra layer of static," he says. "Somebody's future mother-in-law is just not in agreement, and they think, 'Am I going to have to put up with this the rest of my life?' Family still represents a substantial bar a lot of couples can't get past."
Amy Wise, 46, who is white, and her husband, Jamie Wise, 48, who is black, have been married 18 years, and she says that his family is now "very loving." But, she says, "it took years to get to that point."
...
Source:
USA Today
URL:
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/sex-relationships/marriage/story/2011-11-07/Interracial-marriage-More-accepted-still-growing/51115322/1
Date:
November 8, 2011
Affiliate:
0
What We Do
NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.
Print-friendly
Send to friend