Growth in Interracial Marriage

Summary:

I found a book on Google books that was very informative on the subject of the growth of interracial marriages in the United States. The book is entitled Love's Revolution:Interracial Marriage by Maria P. P. Root. The book covers many things about interracial marriages and how they are becoming more frequent in today's society as race issues are seen less in the public eye. To begin the book Root talks about the difference in interracial marriages and how they vary in different parts of the country. In the 1960's to the 1990's the broad assumption of interracial marriages is that they were between blacks and whites, but Root talks about how this assumption is false in some parts of the country and has been since they were made. Trends in Oklahoma showed that the majority of interracial marriages involved American Indians and whites, where in Texas most interracial marriages consist of Latinos and whites if they are not made up of black and whites. Even though these different trends are seen over the country the majority of interracial marriages are between blacks and whites.

The growth of interracial marriages was the greatest when it was first legal to do so following the civil rights movement. In the 1960's the rate of interracial marriages in the United States, and during the 1970's this rate continued to grow and nearly tripled. With these changes came changes also in where foreign spouses were from as well. During this time spouses of interracial marriages were found more in Asia than Europe, and the majority of foreign spouses were from Mexico and the Philippines. This was the period when interracial marriages blossomed and since then have never really stopped growing.

Root also gave her projections on how interracial marriage will continue to grow since acceptance of these marriages are continuing to grow and objection is also continuing to decrease throughout the nation. With these changes growths in interracial marriage will continue until it is not seen as a different marriage, but normal for the society that we live in.

Interesting Points:

I thought that it was very interesting the rate at which interracial marriages grew during and after the civil rights movement. For the occurrence of these marriages to have doubled in a decade then triple in the next decade is outstanding to me. That a change like this was seen so drastically in a changing society is amazing to me and I would have loved to live during the time where racial justice was being seen through so many changes.

Questions:

I wanted to know what people thought about the assumption that interracial marriages will continue to grow and become more accepted as normal as society continues to grow and accept these types of families as not different, but just as normal as a one race family. I understand that interracial marriage will never be seen as completely the same as a one race marriage but I wonder how accepted they will become and I wondered what everybody thought about that.