Legality of Interracial Marriage in the USA is Very Recent
It would be nice to relax and think that racism is a problem of the past. I’ve run into people of my generation who actually think the playing field is level in this country. How tenable is that fantasy when there were such clearly racist laws in place as recently as 1967. Not very.
A digression: Race is such a disputed concept that it’s difficult to even type related words without feeling a little odd. What exactly constitutes race and makes the term “interracial” possible? –would the pairing of a Lithuanian and a Pole seem interracial to people in that region? How about matching up someone from the Carribean and someone from Uganda? To me, race is still more than meaningless but less than clear. I just wanted to acknowledge that before going ahead and using the term “interracial” once again.
Here’s a nice interactive map that shows the legal status of interracial marriage in each US State over the last couple hundred years. Neato. Scary.
I wonder how the Lovings are doing?
December 3rd, 2005 at 8:36 pm
A topic that right now really interests me “interracial marriages”. When I came to U.S. (five years ago from Armenia) I knew exactly that I won’t no one but Armenian guy to be my husband, and by leaving here already long enough for me I’m not sure if that’s what I want. I think it is very important to marry by love, but then at the same time realizing it I control my feelings and tell myself “you shouldn’t have any contact with that person because he is not Armenian”. I’m cautious of not falling in love with non Armenian. Somehow I got very very interested with one Jewish guy. Now, walking bewildered, not knowing what to do and how to do, cannot stop because my thoughts is only about him. Jews and Armenian used to be different races now they both considered to be white. But race is not the only factor there is more than that like culture, customs, traditions and etc. So your diffculty of using the world interracial is understandable. I learned that i should NEVER SAY NEVER.