Interracial marriage

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Othello and Desdemona from William Shakespeare's Othello, a play often depicted as concerning a biracial couple.

Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing races marry. This is a form of exogamy (marrying outside of one's social group) and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation (mixing of different races in marriage, cohabitation, or sexual relations).

Legality of Interracial Marriage

See also: Anti-miscegenation laws

While it is now legal in most countries, certain jurisdictions have had regulations banning or restricting interracial marriage in the past. These included South Africa under apartheid; Germany in the Nazi period; and many states of the United States, particularly in the South. In both Nazi Germany and certain American states, such laws have been closely linked to eugenics programs.

United States

See also: Race (United States Census)

A black/white couple enjoying a moment during their wedding on the beach in Monterey, California

In Social Trends in America and Strategic Approaches to the Negro Problem (1948), Gunnar Myrdal ranked the social areas where restrictions were imposed by Southern whites on the freedom of African-Americans through racial segregation from the least to the most important: jobs, courts and police, politics, basic public facilities, "social equality" including dancing, handshaking, and most important, marriage. This ranking scheme seems to explain the way in which the barriers against desegregation fell. Of less importance was the segregation in basic public facilities, which was abolished with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most tenacious form of legal segregation, the banning of interracial marriage, was not fully lifted until the last anti-miscegenation laws were struck down in 1967.

Interracial marriage between homosexual partners is legally recognised only in the state of Massachusetts.

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James Brown and wife

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Interracial marriage statistics

In 1967, the Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia struck down the last of the anti-miscegenation laws in the United States, widening the available marriage choices. The number of interracial marriages in the United States has been on the rise: from 310,000 in 1970, to 651,000 in 1980, and 1,161,000 in 1992, according to the US Census of 1993. Interracial marriages represented 0.7% of all marriages in 1970, rising to 1.3% in 1980 and 2.2% in 1992. With the introduction of the mixed-race category, the 2000 census revealed interracial marriage to be somewhat more widespread, with 2,669,558 interracial marriages recorded, or 4.9% of all marriages. (Here, marriages between South Asians and East/Southeast Asians, two mixed-race persons, or where they are the same race but one is Hispanic and the other not, are not counted as interracial.) In 2005 it is believed that 7% of married couples in the US are interracial. In general, the number of Asian and Hispanic marriages and cohabitations are more than whites and blacks.

Asian and American Indian

Historically, Filipino Americans have frequently married American Indian and Alaskan Native people. In the 17th century, Filipinos were under Spanish rule. The Spanish colonists ordered the Filipinos to trade between the Philippines and the Americas. When Mexico revolted against the Spanish, Filipinos escaped into Mexico, then traveled to Louisiana, where the exclusively male Filipinos married American Indian women. In the 1920s, Filipino American communities grew in Alaska, and Filipino American men married Alaskan Native women. On the west coast, Filipino Americans married American Indian women in Bainbridge Island Washington.

Asian and White

Marriages between whites and Asians are becoming increasingly common (Lange, 2005). In the US, about 69 percent of married Asian women are married to Asian men, while 25 percent of married Asian women have white husbands. As a whole, the number of Asian female and white male marriages (referring to East Asians and Southeast Asians, non-citizens and immigrants - South Asians are also included in this umbrella term but show different marital habits to East Asian and Southeast Asian Americans, explained lower in the section.) are 3.0 times more than the reverse. However, C.N. Le estimated that the sex gap is smaller among the American-born or 1.5 generation Asian Americans. Asian Americans of both sexes who are U.S.-raised are much more likely to be married with whites than their non-U.S.-raised counterparts. Not all Asian ethnicities have similar intermarriage patterns, for instance, South Asian Americans were overwhelmingly endogamous, with extremely small outmarriage to other ethnic groups. Also it should be noted that interracial marriage disparity amongst South Asian American males and females is low, with outmarriage equal for males and females, usually slightly higher for males. Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, and other East Asians had higher outmarriage to whites. A 2001 U.S. national survey indicated that 24% of the respondents disapprove of marriage with an Asian American, second only to African Americans at 34%.

Black and White

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen and journalist Janet Langhart, one of the more prominent interracial couples in the U.S. Langhart is herself biracial.

Although mixed-race partnering has increased, the United States still shows disparities between African American male and African American female endogamy statistics. The 1990 census reports that 17.6% of African American marriages occur with White Americans. Yet, African American men are 2.5 times more likely to be married to white women than African American women to white men. In the 2000 census, 239,477 African American male to white female and 95,831 white male to African American female marriages were recorded, again showing the 2.5-1 ratio.

Asian and Black

With African Americans and Asian Americans, the ratios are even further imbalanced, with 598% more Asian female/Black male marriages than Asian male/Black female marriages. However, C.N. Le estimated that Asian Americans of the 1.5 generation and of the five largest Asian American ethnic groups had black male/Asian female marriages 272% more than Asian male/black Female relationships. Even though the disparity between Black and Asian interracial marriages by gender is high according to the 2000 US Census, the total numbers of Asian/Black interracial marriages are low, numbering only 2.2% percent for Asian male marriages and 10.2% percent of Asian female marriages, partially contributed by the recent flux of Asian immigrants. Filipinos appear to be the Asian group most likely to marry African-Americans.

A Filipina bride and Nigerian groom walk down the aisle.

Historically, Chinese American men married African American women in high proportions to their total marriage numbers due to few Chinese American women being in the United States. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many Chinese people immigrated to the American South, particularly Arkansas, to work on plantations. The tenth US Census of Louisiana counted 57% of interracial marriages between these Chinese Americans to be with African Americans and 43% to be with White American women. After the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese American men had fewer potential Chinese American wives, so they increasingly married African American women on the west coast. In Jamaica and other Caribbean nations as well many Chinese males over past generations took up Black female wifes gradually assimilating or absorbing many Chinese descendants into the black community or the overall mixed-race community.

White and American Indian

The interracial disparity for American Indians is low. According to the 1990 US Census (which only counts indigenous people with US-government-recognized tribal affiliation), American Indian women intermarried White Americans 2% more than American Indian men married White women.

Marriage squeeze

A new term has arisen to describe the social phenomenon of the so-called "marriage squeeze" for African American females. The marriage squeeze refers to the belief that the most eligible and desirable African American men are marrying non-African American women, leaving those African American women who wish to marry African American men with fewer partnering options. According to Newsweek, 43% of black women between the ages of 30-34 have never been married. Several explanations of this phenomenon have been advanced. In part it may be due to relatively fewer European American men being attracted to African American women, perhaps due to differences in appearance or social status, or as a result of the lingering effects of social ostracism, to which past white American men who have historically pursued relationships with African American women were heavily subjected, although today one in five white Americans would seriously consider marrying across the color line nonetheless. It may also be the result of a desire among African American women to marry African American men due to concepts such as racial loyalty, and the internalized stereotypical belief that non-African American men would not find them attractive. There is also the lingering belief that negative social stereotypes preclude them being viewed as anything but sexual objects by non-African American men. Lastly, there is a desire among educated women of all races to "marry up" or at least within their social and economic class. With the great disparity that exists between African American women and African American men in this respect, black women often face either "marrying down" or not marrying at all, when they choose to restrict their marriage prospects to African American men. Another confounding factor for African American women may be the disproportionate mortality rate between men and women in the black community: there are only approximately 85 males for every 100 females by the time they reach their child-bearing years.

Education and interracial marriage

Using PUMS data from both the 1980 and 1990 US Census to determine trends within interracial marriage among White Americans, African Americans, Hispanic or Latinos, and Asian Americans, it may be seen that endogamy (marrying within race) was more prevalent for African American men at lower education levels.

In 1980, the numbers were as follows: African American males without a high-school diploma participated in endogamy at 96.5%; for those who received a high-school diploma, 95.6%; for those with a college degree and above, the percentage of endogamy dropped to 94.0%. However, the rates for African American women changed very little with different educational levels. For the African American woman who had not received a high school diploma the rate was 98.7%, high school diploma was 98.6%, with some college it was 98.2%, and college degree or higher, 98.5%. During this time there was a significant increase in marriages between whites and African Americans, maintaining that African Americans are most likely to marry whites over other groups.

The 1990 results show that rates of endogamy dropped for both males and females, albeit more for the African American male. In 1990, an African American male with a college degree and more was participating in endogamy at 90.4%; for an African American female with the same educational level, 96.4%. The results for the propensity of individuals at higher educational attainment levels to participate less in endogamy over the 10-year period were similar across races, including whites, Hispanics, and Asian Americans.

Immigrants and interracial marriage

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An Iranian groom and a Mexican-American bride enjoy their first dance as a mixed-race married couple.

It is found that racial endogamy is much stronger for immigrants as compared to natives; it is 4.9 times more likely for immigrants of African descent than for African Americans. Additionally, immigrants of African descent have the highest rates of endogamy of immigrants. Also, African immigrants are much more likely to marry other same-race immigrants and African Americans, than to out-marry racially. Native-born White Americans are also 1.6 times more likely to marry a native-born African American than an immigrant of African descent. Female immigrants of African descent are generally more likely to marry native-born whites than their male counterparts.

Cohabitation and interracial marriage

The number of black men and white female marriages are 2.5 times more than the reverse. Also, Cohabitatation are 3.3 times more than the reverse. Research yields that 7% of married Black American men are with white wives and 15% of African American men cohabit with white women.

United Kingdom

See also: United Kingdom Census 2001

As of 2001, 2% of all UK marriages are inter-ethnic. Despite having a much lower non-white population (9%), mixed marriages are as common as in the United States. For example, Black British men are significantly more likely to have non-black wives than African American men; 18% of UK black African husbands, 29% of UK black Caribbean husbands, and 48% of other Black British husbands have a wife from a different ethnic group.

Interracial marriage disparities for certain groups

A similar trend can be seen in the UK. According to the UK 2001 census , Black British males were around 50% more likely than black females to marry outside their race, whereas British Chinese women (30%) were twice as likely as their male counterparts (15%) to marry someone from a different ethnic group. Among British Asians (South Asians), Pakistani and Bangladeshi males were twice as likely to to have an inter-ethnic marriage than their female counterparts, while Indian and "Other Asian" males were more likely to have an inter-ethnic marriage than their female counterparts by a smaller percentage.

Case of Seretse Khama

In 1948, an international incident was created when the British government took exception to the marriage of Seretse Khama, kgosi (king) of the Bamangwato people of what was then the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, to an English woman, Ruth Williams, whom he had met while studying law in London. The interracial marriage sparked a furor among both the tribal elders of the Bamangwato and the apartheid government of South Africa, who could not afford to have an interracial couple ruling just across their northern border, and who therefore immediately exerted pressure to have Khama removed from his chieftainship. Britain’s Labour government, then heavily in debt from World War II, could not afford to lose cheap South African gold and uranium supplies. There was also a fear that South Africa might take more direct action against Bechuanaland, through economic sanctions or a military incursion. The British government therefore launched a parliamentary enquiry into Khama’s fitness for the chieftainship. Though the investigation reported that he was in fact eminently fit for the rule of Bechuanaland, "but for his unfortunate marriage", the government ordered the report suppressed (it would remain so for thirty years), and exiled Khama and his wife from Bechuanaland in 1951. It took many years of exile before the couple was allowed to live in Africa, and several more years before Khama became president of what is now Botswana.

In Australia

See also: Demographics of Australia

Disparities in child-producing unions

Interracial and inter ethnic partnering disparities are evident in birth statistics, with Australian women more likely to form partnerships and families with foreign men than Australian men with foreign women.

In 2005 there were 255,481 live births in Australia. 71.5% of these infants were born to Australian-born fathers, and 75.9% were born to Australian-born mothers.

In unions between Australian and non-Australian born people that produce children, the Australian-born partner is more likely to be male when the female was born in North Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada or Zimbabwe. Australian-born women rather than men are more likely to produce children with partners born elsewhere.

However the disparity is generally only marginal when the foreign-born partner is from Western Europe, New Zealand or the Americas. At an extreme there are 3.6 times more births to Australian-born men/Chinese-born women than to Australian-born women/Chinese-born men, while there are 2.7 times more births to Pakistani-born men/Australian-born women than to Pakistani-born women/Australian-born men.

In Africa

Interracial marriage disparities

Indian (Asian) men have married many African women in Africa. Indians have long been traders in East Africa. The British Empire brought workers into East Africa to build the Uganda Railway. Indians eventually populated South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Rhodesia and Zaire in small numbers. These interracial unions were mostly unilateral marriages between Indian men and East African women.

See also

• Miscegenation
• Multiracial
• The Race of the Future
• The Adventure of the Yellow Face