Essay on Interracial Dating

Interracial relationships have always been controversial. Whether it is about families disapproving of the other individual or because of the different backgrounds that contain large amounts of racial tension. In modern US society, interracial relationships are viewed as very disputable. There are two different sides, which are those who accept it and others that completely oppose it. However, interracial relationships should be more accepted today because there is a lot more to gain.

Interracial marriages were first recognized and legalized in the U.S. in 1967. Although people are free to marry and start a family with other races, relationships, in general, still continue to experience complications even up to now. Many black male celebrities are taking a hit on social media when it comes to interracial dating.

In today’s society people think blacks can’t date whites and vice versa. Do effects of racism on African American relationships cause problems? The effects of racism on African American relationships are stereotypes of their race, black women tend to choose lighter skinned black male or vice versa, and African American reject each other as being too black and ugly or educated enough for another mate. Many people are racist when it comes to races dating different races. People think it’s a problem.

It has long been said that only people of the same race should be allowed to date, marry, and reproduce. Although everyone has their own opinion on the subject, there is honestly no right, or wrong. In today’s day and age the relationships held by people of different races are better accepted than they were in earlier ages when people lived strictly by morals. Interracial relationships have always been frowned upon for religious or moral reasons, but they should be treated with the same respect as a relationship between the same races.

Interracial romance has been an issue in the United States since the first English settlers established colonies during the seventeenth century. Over the years, views toward interracial relationships in America have changed greatly. The interracial dating trend among today’s teenagers is increasing at a steady rate (Grapes 49). However, there are still many biases facing Gen-Y youth who choose to date someone of another race. A look at the history of interracial romance in the United States will shed light on today’s attitudes.

Interracial dating in the United States compared to previous history is more popular than ever before. It is more present because minorities are getting higher education, people are becoming more tolerant, there is more exposure to other cultures, there are no bans on interracial dating now, and young people are more self-expressive and believe more in individualism (Firmin & Firebaugh, 2008). Though interracial dating is more accepted by people currently, there is still pressure from the ingroup, parents, and family members to date within one’s race. Some people still prefer intraracial dating rather than interracial dating. There are certain pros and cons to interracial dating according to research studies. In addition, the percentage of one race dating another varies and the gender statistics differs as well. Who is more open to interracial dating is different among the races. Lastly, there are certain characteristics that may determine how receptive a person is to the idea of interracial dating and his or her attitude of the topic.

My parents grew up when tensions through the different races were still high even though segregation was nonexistent. They were taught to always be friendly to every race and it was acceptable to be friends with people of a different race. When it came to dating someone of a different race it was a different story. Since my parents were taught that from their parents so my brother and I were taught the same. Growing up in this era I’ve always been in diverse classes and once I got older and saw interracial relationships occur I didn’t think anything of it. Freshman year I got asked to Black and White by a mixed boy and when my parents found out they were shocked by it. This type of thing was normal for me because it was what I’m used to seeing but for my parents it was

Luckily attitudes have changed with the acceptance of interracial relationships that have allowed them to become more common and normalized within our society.

Harris and Kalbfleisch focused their studies on interracial dating among African American and European Americans to measure their social behavior, attitudes, and beliefs using a Q-methodological statistic which is a psychological test that requires participants to agree or disagree by sorting out items related to one another. They used equal numbers in each racial group of men and women to test two hypotheses. The first hypothesis states that “both African American and European American men and women will report a change in their communication strategies when initiating a date with a person from a different race”. Hypothesis two, on the hand, states “men and women will experience a change in their communication strategies when initiating a date with a person from a different race”.

Society’s perceptions place greater stress on interracial couples. Americans have a strong need to categorize and segregate. Even modern American society is obsessed with whiteness and the exclusion of anyone who is not of Anglo descent. This creation of a caste system sustains the high status of the White majority and oppresses minorities. Social norms declare that one must be American and White in order to be considered normal; non-Whites are abnormal, un-American, and physically and mentally inferior to Whites (Grapes). Moreover, skin color stratification gives those with lighter skin privilege and preferential treatment. This social norm of discrimination based on skin color further pits races against each other and introduces racial

Jessica Remedios and Alison Chasteen explain in their article the disadvantages multiracial people has to pass every day of their lives. They are rejected by all ethnic groups because their don’t exactly fit in either of them, even though they represent the fastest growing minority group in the States. Remedios and Chasteen conducted two studies to help them understand better the difference between these two main groups, the multiracial and the monoracial. They hypothesized that because multiracial people has unpredictable background they tend to be attracted to partners who can verify their racial identities. Contrary to monoracial people, whose background are extremely predictable, they do not view race as an aspect of the self verification

I begin this study with a review of contemporary literature on the topics of interracial dating, diversity in schools and communities cross group friends, and individual’s perspective of attitudes and beliefs on interracial relationships. Next, I outline the methods used in this study and reveal its results:

We are an insensible society. We jump at the chance to trust that bigotry is a relic of days gone by; this is a long way from reality. We, the general public, love to play imagine. We jump at the chance to trust in the uprightness and virtue of this general public. Interracial marriage is legitimate; we have pioneers of shading, and believe that anybody, regardless of what shading they are, can be anything they accomplish. Yes, we have come some routes as a general public, yet at the same time, glance around. Prejudice runs wild through urban and rural lanes alike, bringing about racial strains to flare and many to question how far we have truly originated from the times of subjection. These pressures can be viewed as in America, we saw the most transparently bigot president hopeful turn into the president of the United States of America.

The concept of interracial dating is highly looked down upon by some people, so for Lee to be in public with her partner of a different race is seen as ‘wrong’ by some people. This mindset leads to both Lee and her partner’s value as individuals being minimized to the stereotypes that are attached to their races and/or ethnicities whilst dating. This mindset also shows that no matter an what an individual’s race is, they can still be minimized as a person solely based on who they associate themselves with.

This article was written by Ritter (2015), who reported research on racial attitudes and group preferences of Asian international students, like Korean, Japanese, and Chinese toward dating other international students. The author surveyed 47 participants (23 Chinese, 13 Japanese, 8 Koreans, 2 Hong Kong students, and 1 Taiwanese student) studying at University of California at Los Angeles about the impacts of racial stereotypes on their perceptions of interracial dating.1 According to quite a few exigencies that the author declared in this investigation. Ritter (2015) mentioned that beyond the communication gap, the racial hierarchies emerge to affect the Asian international students when it came to dating. Put it another way, students were barely affected