The Interracial Marriages - Essay Example

Number and Section Paper Many men of color today have accepted interracial marriages. It is the norm today rather thanthe exception. Traditionally, interracial marriages were not expected. The main reason was the belief that men of color who marry from other races “want to escape” from their culture and values. The traditionalist belief means that many men of color preferred to marry from their own culture. However, many people have dropped this traditional belief and become more liberal. The popular belief today is that men of color who marry outside of their race don’t “want to escape” from their culture and values but are driven by love. This essay is meant to discuss the reason why culture is no longer an issue when it comes to marriage. Traditionally, many men of color preferred to marry among themselves. This was fueled by the strong cultural belief that they shared. In the past marriage was guided by cultures. Traditional culture was meant to guide men on how to look for a wife. The belief was that marrying a person of your race was keeping up with your culture. Those who wanted to marry a person from outside their race were bared by culture. The traditional culture did not consider personal feelings when it came to marriages. Many parents would have a say in the person their sons preferred for marriage. Parents would in some cases force their children to marry someone they did not love. Thus, arranged marriages were very common in the black communityi. The issue of love was considered to be irrelevant and was considered as a secondary issue in marriage. In the United States, culture was a unifying factor among black people. Black people were united against the white race. The black community still shared the memory of slavery. They believed that white people were a threat to the existence of their culture. This belief made black men to unite and choose not to marry a white woman. The other belief is that white women were promiscuous and uncultured. White women in the beginning of the 20th century were very free. White women could be seen drinking and smoking freely. They also had very liberal views on sex. Black females still carried the culture of being good housewives while white females were seen as being funii. A man who would marry a white woman was considered as running away from his culture. Many black women also felt that white women were stealing their men. The black women believed that if a black man married a white woman, the white woman was stealing their men. The black women believed that men of their race who married white women were simply climbing up the social ladder. Today however, there is a new popular belief. This is that men of color who marry outside their race are driven by love. There is a belief that people today only marry because of love. The shift from the traditional belief has been fueled by several factors. First is that people no longer put that much emphasis on culture. Due to interactions between the cultures, many people have accepted the differences in culture. The racism that existed in the past was one of the reason races did not intermarry. The men who feared marrying outside their communities no longer had this fear. The second issue that led to the new popular belief is people justifying their actions. Many people who want to go against the tide often attempt to market their actions as being genuine. The pioneers in interracial marriage attempted to justify their actions by saying that they fell in love. Every one of the men of color would use love to explain why they married from another culture. People who dare to be different will always have a genuine reason of why they want to be different. Traditional belief on the other hand was guided by a culture that people held so dear. People believed in practicing what their ancestors had done rather that making their own choices. Love is the main reason why people get marriediii. Traditionally, marriage simply served the purpose of child bearing and bringing up a family. Because of that reason, love was not a significant reason to get into a marriage. People looked for a partner who would help them bring up a good family. However, love today has become a significant issue in marriage. The entertainment industry in the U.S has promoted the idea of marrying for love. Many of the programs that we watch today are centered on finding true love. The movies and programs have stories of people who came from different backgrounds or race meeting and falling in love. These films end with the people getting married and living happily ever after. This idea has become popular belief. Everyone today wants to tell a fairy tale story of how they met and fell in love and got married. Today, many people have a choice. The United States today is a country that allows people to make their own choices. People are allowed to choose who to marry without being judged. Men of color today can choose to marry a woman from a different community. The culture of arranged marriages ended when everyone was allowed to make a choice. Parents no longer make decisions on who their children should marry. They let them decide for themselves. The power of choice is greater than that of culture. No one today can judge a personal choice of another person. In the book Half and Half by Claudine Chiawei O’Hearn, growing the writer shows how belonging to a certain culture was importantiv. Traditional belief was fueled by people who still had a belief in culture. They believed that if one ignored any aspect of their culture, they would not only be running away from themselves. Marriage was one such important aspect of culture. They believed that if one married a person from a different culture, then that person has run away from their own culture and who they are as a person. However, popular belief is guided by what people accept as today’s culture. The popular belief is that in the search for true love, we must ignore all barriers such as race or culture. We must also ignore all other factors that we encounter such as race or culture. Popular belief to some considered to be just an excuse. If an action is popular in the public domain, then there will always be a popular belief to support it. In the modern world race is not a factor in marriage. People marry because of love. Culture has also been eroded. Popular belief is also fueled by the fact that people every person’s life is guided by personal choices and not those made by a community. Bibliography Top of Form OHearn, Claudine C. 1998. Half and half writers on growing up biracial and bicultural. New York: Pantheon Books. http://books.google.com/books?id=WApHAAAAYAAJ. Davidson, Jeanette R. "Theories About Black‐White Interracial Marriage: A Clinical Perspective." Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development 20, no. 4 (2002): 150-157. Hollingshead, August B. "Cultural factors in the selection of marriage mates."American Sociological Review (2010): 619-627. Root, Maria P. P. 2001. Loves revolution: interracial marriage. Philadelphia, PA: Temple Univ. Press.Bottom of Form Read More