The Problems from Interracial Marriage - Essay Example

Name: Professor: Subject: Interracial marriage Date: The problems from interracial marriage A multi-cultural marriage is one, which occurs when members of different races marry each other. They are also referred to as interracial marriages. It is a relationship with representatives from two races with different origins, ideals, and values. People in interracial marriages have different characteristics in terms of race, ethnicity, or religion. The rise in populations throughout the world has given rise to multi-cultural marriages. Furthermore, the world is continuously becoming smaller through globalization and people are being linked through social interactions. There is currently an increase in the number of black-white interracial marriages in the US (Judice, p.21). Statistics from the Pew Research Centre support the fact that there has been a major increase in interracial marriages in the United States. One move that led to this rapid increase is the abolition of anti-misgenation laws in 1967. Their recent research report indicates that in 2010, one in 12 marriages in the US were interracial in nature (The Huffington Post, Para 2). Other statistics estimate that between 1970 and 2000, black-white marriages in the united states grew more than five times from 65 to 363 thousand while those between members of other races and whites grew from 233 thousand to 1.1 million (Qian, p.33). Interracial marriages are good because they bring people together and are a sure way towards attaining peace and tolerance as social problems such as racial prejudice are greatly minimized. On the other hand, interracial marriages come with a unique set of problems, which couples must learn how to manage and resolve. This essay attempts to highlight the problems that face interracial marriages. The first problem faced by interracial marriages is religion. Religion presents a problem to these marriages through several fronts. In the US, many white Christians resisted interracial marriages for a very long time. These Christians often used the Bible as their defence by selectively picking biblical arguments to support their view. The Civil War was supposed to have ended discrimination in the US but it did not. Many states unexpectedly continued to reject white-black interracial marriages by drafting antimisgenation laws. A most recent demonstration of the church’s resistance to interracial marriages was demonstrated by the members of Gulnare Free Will Baptist in Kentucky who unanimously agreed to forbid interracial couples from all church activities apart from church funerals. The resolution declares that the church will not “condone interracial marriage” (Wardrop, para 1). Although there have been some positive steps towards abolition of racial discrimination in the United States, there is resistance mainly in white churches. Notwithstanding the fact that doctrines of most churches forbid discrimination of any kind, many churches in the South strongly oppose interracial marriages. They do this with the assumption that the Bible opposes interracial marriages (Hays, p.7). Opponents of interracial marriages argue that God created different races but intended them to remain separate. Accordingly, those who intermarry are in contravention of God’s laws as stated in the bible. Intermarriage has been blamed for corruption of America (Grapes, p.34). Opponents note that interracial marriages involve the destruction of the children of God and of all races of people. The term so coined to explain this phenomenon is interracial genocide. Unions between people from different races are seen as destroying the purity of one of the races involved in the intermarriage. Although integration between different races is no longer discouraged, most pastors still quote the bible in supporting their claims. In the marriage between blacks and whites in the US for instance, is interpreted to mean the death of whites through interracial offspring. Migrations from third world countries are also cited as a major contributor to the death of the white race (Grapes, p.35).To curb the practice of interracial marriages, some religions prescribe heavy punishment for those who break this rule and engage in interracial marriages. In the Bible, the children of Israel were asked not to mingle people from other lands and any such act was considered a violation of God’s commandments, which was considered an abomination, and one could face dire consequences. Furthermore, the Bible considers it a sin to cohabit with others in an interracial relationship (Grapes, p.37). Notably however other Christians have rejected these arguments by those who cite biblical passages to reject interracial marriages. The second problem that arises from interracial marriages comes from a difference in cultural influence. Interracial marriages face many problems because of differences between respective cultures. There is cultural influence since each couple that enters into an interracial relationship has been brought up under a unique culture with unique differences in terms of practices, beliefs, ideas, and customs and value systems. This means that people who enter interracial relationship has been influenced by his or her culture and behaves in a unique way. Couples therefore require more time to get to understand each other better and to be able to adjust to each other. Before this understanding is reached however, there will be a lot of conflicts and problems. There are differences in terms of values among the couples. There are differences in what each person sees as being right or wrong. These can cause misunderstanding and conflict in that one partner can do something with the assumption that it is the right thing to do. Conversely, such a thing may not be taken lightly by the other partner, as it might be the negative or opposite of his or her expectations. This will lead to a serious disagreement between the two couples. Other problems that arise because of cultural marriages can be based on whether one partner comes from a culture with a historical background of discrimination. A case in point is the interracial marriages between blacks and whites in the US. In such unions, the partner who is black in origin has a high level of sensitivity to racial discrimination. This is due to the fact that members of the black race in the US have a long history of being discriminated upon. On the other hand, the partner from white background may show less sensitivity and awareness of racial discrimination (Foeman & Nance, P. 240). The levels of sensitivity to discrimination between couples may become a source of conflict to couples in interracial marriages. The black partners in interracial marriages for instance, may feel that their white spouses are not fully aware about the discrimination in society. On the other hand, the white partner may feel that the other partner is being overly reactive over a minor issue. This difference in perception can easily lead to conflict among spouses since the two lacks a shared perception about discrimination. There are also differences that result because of the way people are brought up. This often leads to different expectations about the marriage by each partner. If one partner, for example is from a culture where women are expected to be submissive to their husbands such a partner will be shocked if the other partner is radical and not submissive. This will be a major conflict brought about by difference in a person’s background. In other cultures, women are the sole providers of the household while they are not in others. Many men in the west, for example, expect their wives to participate towards generating the family income. In Africa and some other parts of Asia, however, the woman’s main role is just to give birth to children and take care of the household (Hubbynet, n.p). Interracial couples are also likely to face rejection from their respective cultures. Some cultures even refer to those who marry from outside the culture as outcasts by the society and face resistance from family members. Family members have been known to go as far as refusing to recognize interracial marriages that involve their own. They may then face stares and anger from members of their race (Wilt, p. 35). An interracial marriage may also be affected by the problem of parenting. The aim of every marriage is to get children and the process of raising a child can always lead to conflict if both parents are not from the same culture. In the first case, multiracial children are most likely to undergo an identity crisis. This is because they will not know who to identify with between the two parents. It is therefore difficult as a parent to deal with children in this kind of a relationship. Such children feel a lot of pressure in understanding their mixed racial heritage. The reason is that as they grow, children categorize people into different groups depending on their colour. The pressure of giving themselves an appropriate label intensifies as a child reaches adolescent stage. Other studies suggest that multi-racial children encounter a lot of discrimination as they develop. While at school, these children still face insurmountable challenges in their daily lives. Surveys conducted in school have indicated that when multiracial children go to school, they face difficulty of being accepted by their friends (McFadden, p 39). Furthermore, these children are under pressure to choose and identify with a particular race. When compared to children from single race families, some findings have supported the view that multiracial children seem to have many problems in certain aspects of their lives and a high percentage of them have been referred to counsellors for help in dealing with emotional problems. Most of these children had become delinquent in school. For parents handling such children therefore, it is a big challenge as they should anticipate such challenges and counsel their children appropriately. Another problem faced by couples in interracial marriages is on what to teach multiracial children about their heritage. There are arguments over this issue, which at other times may end discussions about racial issues such as discrimination. Furthermore, parents of multi-racial children may not understand what their children are going through (Wilt, p. 37). The parents also find it difficult to inform their children about their racial identities. This essay has shown that interracial marriages do face many problems. It has identified three major problems that face couples in an interracial marriage. The first problem is of religious nature. In this case, Christians reject these unions by basing their arguments on the Bible. Secondly, couples in these kinds of unions also face a big problem because of differences and conflicts that arise because of cultural differences. The essay finally identified the third problem with interracial marriages as parenting issues especially as regards the challenges of bringing up children. Works Cited Foeman, Anita and Nance,Teresa. “Building New Cultures, Reframing Old Images: Success Strategies of Interracial Couples. The Howard Journal of Communications. 13. 3 (2002): 237-249. Grapes, Bryan J. ed. Interracial Relationships. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, Inc, 2000. Hays, Daniel. “A Biblical Perspective on Interracial Marriage.” CTR n.s. 6/2 (Spring 2009): 5-23. Hubbynet. “Interracial marriage”. Hubbynet.com., Hubbynet Inc., n. d. Web.18 November 2012. Judice, Cheryl. “Interracial Marriages between Black Women and White Men”. Googlebooks. Cambria Press., n.d. Web.17 November 2012 McFadden,John. “Intercultural Marriage and Family: Beyond the Racial Divide.” The Family Journal: Counselling and Therapy for Couples. 9. 1 (2001): 39–42. Qian, Zhenchao. “Breaking the Last Taboo: Interracial Marriage in America.” American Sociological Association, 4.4 (2005): 33-37. The Huffington Post. “Interracial Marriage Statistics: Pew Report Finds Mixed-race Marriage Rates Rising”. huffingtonpost.com., 16 February 2012. Web.18 November 2012. Wardrop, Murray. “US church bans interracial couples.” The Telegraph., 02 December 2011. Web. 18 November 2012. Wilt, Joshua. “Normal Families Facing Unique Challenges: The Psychosocial Functioning of Multiracial Couples, Parents, and Children.” The New School Psychology Bulletin, 9. 1 (2011): 34-41. Read More