Interracial marriages becoming more common

My husband, Dan, doesn't really seem to notice or care when my hair is a mess or I'm wearing my shabbiest but oh-so-comfortable sweatshirt. He averts his eyes when I leave dishes in the sink, gently teases if I leave books everywhere. I shrug when he leaves doors open, chuckle to myself when he absently wears his shirt inside-out. He is white, and I am Black.

The United States has historically promoted the concept of purity, or the separation of the races. Laws were enacted to keep the races separate and to prohibit marriages between members of different races, especially between people who by virtue of marriage would not maintain the purity of racial-ethnic groups. These laws were often specifically worded to make marriages illegal between Caucasians and African Americans Davis In Maryland enacted the first anti-miscegenation law in the United States, and by the s five additional states had enacted such laws. Between and , fourteen states repealed these laws through legislative action.

Truman if interracial marriage — miscegenation — would become widespread in the United States, Mr. The question of miscegenation can make a man like Truman, whose past support of integration in other respects is not open to question, appear unthinking if not bigoted. How many persons are repelled or at least disconcerted at the mere sight of a Negro-white couple? Perhaps their number tells us how far we are from achieving an integrated society. If usually tolerant and rational persons can react this way, it is not surprising that many experts consider the fear of miscegenation the strongest reason for the desire of whites to keep the Negro permanently segregated.

Othello and Desdemona from William Shakespeare 's Othello , a play concerning an interracial couple. Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry , often creating multiracial children. 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 racial groups in marriage, cohabitation, or sexual relations. In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations banning or restricting interracial marriage in the past, including Germany during the Nazi period, South Africa under apartheid , and many states in the United States prior to the Supreme Court's ruling in Loving v.