New Study: 1 in 10 Marriages are Interracial

[annewandering]

I hope he was kidding but that was a great story, Hala. You have come so far. It is a proof to me that a person isnt bound by their birth or circumstances. I like variations in people but if it got rid of bigotry it would be nice if the different shades went away. Sadly we will find something else to be bigoted about. Like the blue eye study.

[Hala401]

I'm sorry Hoosierguy. Usually when I get upset and speak is when I am the wrongest.

[annewandering]

Hala, when I read that I was confused as well.

[DevtheWind]

The only "race" to me is the Human race.

[Hala401]

Hala, when I read that I was confused as well.

Well, at least I am not close enough for anyone to drag me out back of the wood shed and hyde me.

[pam]

HoosierGuy is just being facetious, Hala.

You honestly believe this?

[RMGuy]

"I've been seeing Lisa now, for a little over a year

She says she's never been so happy, but Lisa lives in fear

That one day Daddy's gonna find out that she's in love

With a Nigger from the streets

Oh how he would lose it then, but she's still here with me

Cuz she believes that love will see it through

One day he'll understand

He'll see me as a person, not just a black man"

from Blessed Union of Souls

-RM

[Wingnut]

You honestly believe this?

I was thinking the same thing -- so often I think we wish HG is being facetious, but he rarely is.

[Vort]

You honestly believe this?

Well...yes. No one could really believe that. He's obviously just being funny.

[dahlia]

I'm mixed and married a white guy. I expect my son to marry inter-racially (whatever that means for a mixed race person). There are mixed marriages all over the place. Even out here in the cornfields, we have mixed relationships because students from all backgrounds are thrown together in school.

Maybe this is news in Utah. Not so much elsewhere.

When I teach research methods, I include ethics and the Tuskegee Syphilis study. I could tell you other stories about the mistreatment of blacks in the name of research and the negative affect that has had on getting blacks to volunteer for clinical trials. This is problematic because different races do react differently to various meds and treatments. It is important for people of every racial background to be involved in clinical trials. /rant

[davidg9035]

I served a mission in Brazil where the percentage of "interracial" marriages is quite high. In Brazil, for example, it's not uncommon to see someone with very light skin describe themselves as being "black". We have examples in this country also. I remember how surprised I was when I learned that Mariah Carey considered herself "black". She looks as white as anyone I've ever known. In large measure, census takers don't look at someone and decide what race they belong to - they simply ask to which race the person considers him/herself most closely associated with. The census itself (if I remember correctly) doesn't even identify "mixed race" as an option. You're either caucasian, black, latino, asian, etc. You're never more than one, so you're forced to place yourself into a single narrow, pre-defined racial category.

That said, I do agree that more and more people are crossing racial lines for marriage. The Church has no position against interracial marriage, and with the "compression" of socio-economic status in our country, it's really no surprise that we find more and more couples marrying interracially, even in the Church.

[prisonchaplain]

I find it rather humorous that 2-3 radio commentators have brought up the difficulty of inter-political-party marriages...and I perceived that they were being serious. I still want to believe they were playing me...please...someone tell me I'm just gullible.

[Anddenex]

As I have aged, I have a similar understanding as Annewandering. What is race, when we all stem from Adam and Eve?

How do races evolve from the same parentage? Unless, we are not all from Adam and Eve, then there could be different races, so to speak.

I would agree there are different skin tones, different genetic markers, no different than Jacob and Esau, how one brother was extremely hairy and the other not so much.

I have come to find out through DNA testing from my father, that he is 92% European and 8% African American. I just think it is interesting that we call ourselves different races when our heritage is from Adam and Eve. I am more inclined to follow suit with Anne, it is just a different skin tone and body structure, nothing more, nothing less.

[daboosh]

in new zealand it would probably be 1 in 3 marriages are interracial lol. that is nothing

[Bini]

Initially, I would argue what everyone else is saying BUT as I think about it more carefully, I agree with Anne, Tyler and Anddenex. So I guess that makes four.

Stats don't shock me. I'm Asian, my husband is European, and our daughter is Eurasian. Still, I totally get what Anne is saying about race. Makes sense.

[JosephP]

This whole concept of different race marriage is rather confusing to me. It's so subjective as to be insane. My mother is Ukrainian, called herself Russian, and my father was a Cuban. Yet when my brother wanted to marry a Polish women she objected because of her nationality. In her mind, Poles were a different and undesirable race.

So what of me, being mixed race? Should I find another Ukrainian/Cuban to marry? Is an English/Hawaian close enough or is that interracial? These classifications are archaic and there continued use is equally archaic. For me, the continued defense of these classifications is offensive.

Why are we asked to declare a race on almost every government form? Why is there no mixed race option on federal forms? Am I Caucasian or Hispanic? Do I deny my mother or my father when addressing my government? It's simply repulsive to think that some government clerk somewhere will decide what catagory my Germanic fiancé and I fit into when we marry.

Lastly, I simply can not understand why we as a free people can be compelled to provide this information, and more so, what possible use this information is to the government other then the continuation of archaic racial distinctions.

Edited October 9, 2012 by JosephP

[Windseeker]

I wouldn't recommend it, look what my interracial marriage produced.

[Vort]

Adorable kid. And, you know, modern surgical techniques can remove the fingers from the nostrils.

[Anddenex]

I wouldn't recommend it, look what my interracial marriage produced.

I assume windseeker that this picture will be the picture you share when dates are brought home??

[Windseeker]

I assume windseeker that this picture will be the picture you share when dates are brought home??

No, that's what the nekid pictures are for

[bluedreams]

The census itself (if I remember correctly) doesn't even identify "mixed race" as an option. You're either caucasian, black, latino, asian, etc. You're never more than one, so you're forced to place yourself into a single narrow, pre-defined racial category.

Nowadays, yes you can be more than one race on national census reports (and it's growing in popularity with other forms to allow multiple boxes be checked or to have a multiracial box). 3%, Including myself, identified as being more than one race in 2010 census

Sure, if you cherry-pick your definitions, you can argue that those definitions aren't useful. But that's more a strawman technique than a useful analysis of terminology.

Example: Medically, those of African descent are much more likely to be predisposed toward sickle-cell anemia. In other words, the racial classification of "black African" is useful to identify such predisposition. So, yes, "race" does indeed indicate genetic difference.

Let me try to head off further unnecessary disagreement by pointing out what I was responding to. You wrote:

There are genetic differences between different groups of people but not by the so called standard races.

It is to this statement of yours -- that races do not correlate with predictable genetic differences -- that I disagree. The social or scientific usefulness of social ideas of race is not my point, nor do I find it particularly interesting.

Vort, I get what both of you are saying, but I disagree with you. Geographic origin is a better indicaton of genetic difference than race. For example, your medical example is also oversimplified. People of african decent, who's origins come from tropical regions of africa, especially the west coast are more likely to have the sickle cell allele. If you are from, say, ethiopia you don't have a higher chance of sickle cell. Yet, they're often considered the same race. If you are from southern india you have an increased chance for it (though not as high as areas like Nigeria) and yet they're not considered the same race. Which I think suits more of ann's point. There is more genetic variation within africa and people that would often be considered the "same race" than there is in any other populations.

But I also disagree that race doesn't exist. Of course it does, at the very least as an important social construct that shapes our societies. But it's also a whole lot of screwy. I kinda laugh when people say there's no race. Cuz this "no race" factor has followed me all my life and led to a number of awkward conversations, random forms of ignorance or discrimination and the likes. Race may not have a strict genetic component to it. But it still exists and will exist (probably not in it current form with the increase in mixed races) for a good time to come. Race can correllate with a number of genetic predispositions this is true. But only because certain races are more likely to come from a similar geographic history, especially in the US. For example most black people in the US are going to have ancestral links with the western coast of africa, especially Ghana and Nigeria.

With luv,

BD

[Vort]

Vort, I get what both of you are saying, but I disagree with you. Geographic origin is a better indicaton of genetic difference than race.

I don't see how this is a disagreement with anything I wrote.

For example, your medical example is also oversimplified. People of african decent, who's origins come from tropical regions of africa, especially the west coast are more likely to have the sickle cell allele. If you are from, say, ethiopia you don't have a higher chance of sickle cell. Yet, they're often considered the same race.

True, but not relevant. This was in the context of discussing whether "race" were a useful medical or biological indicator. The fact is that the vast majority of the African compoment of so-called "African American" ancestry is West African, not Ethiopian. So American Blacks (or "African Americans", or "Negros", or whatever race term you prefer to use) do indeed constitute a medically distinctive group. Ergo, race is a useful classification for medical purposes. That it may not be as useful as some other indicator is beside the point.

[Vort]

Vort, I get what both of you are saying, but I disagree with you. Geographic origin is a better indicaton of genetic difference than race.

I don't see how this is a disagreement with anything I wrote.

For example, your medical example is also oversimplified. People of african decent, who's origins come from tropical regions of africa, especially the west coast are more likely to have the sickle cell allele. If you are from, say, ethiopia you don't have a higher chance of sickle cell. Yet, they're often considered the same race.

True, but not relevant. This was in the context of discussing whether "race" were a useful medical or biological indicator. The fact is that the vast majority of the African compoment of so-called "African American" ancestry is West African, not Ethiopian. So American Blacks (or whatever race term you prefer to use) do indeed constitute a medically distinctive group. Ergo, race is a useful classification for medical purposes. That it may not be as useful as some other indicator is beside the point.

[Shortstuff]

Having grown up in California, I don't find this suprising at all.

Now if I had grown up in Utah, I would be very surprised at the high statistics.

I live in the cow town of Mapleton, Utah south of Provo and in my ward/neighborhood alone we have at least four multiracial couples that I can think of off the top of my head which is about the same as I had in Orange County, California where I lived for 9 years. In fact I see more African American faces here than I ever did there.