Interracial Marriage

Marrying someone of a different race officially became legal in the US in 1967. The stigma* around interracial marriage is rooted in racist ideals that have flooded our nation since the time of its founding, whether that be the hierarchy created by slavery or the extensive discrimination of Asian American immigrants in the twentieth century. Today, the majority of marriages are still between people of the same race, although the population of interracial couples is growing substantially from year to year. However, combatting the longstanding idea of marrying within racial lines can come with hardship and struggle, even in 2024. What kinds of experiences do interracial couples have today? How do outside opinions impact their relationships, and how do they choose to respond to them? 

In 1958, Mildred Jetter, a Black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, got married. They decided to wed in Washington D.C. in order to avoid the anti-miscegenation** law in their home state of Virginia at the time. That same year, the Virginia police barged into the Lovings’ bedroom in the middle of the night to arrest and threaten them with a year in prison unless they left the state. When the Lovings challenged the violation they received for being a married interracial couple, the Supreme Court unanimously eliminated the law (and similar laws instated in ⅓ of the United States) in a famous decision now known as Loving v. Virginia. Much of the legislation that came down in the court case went beyond prohibiting marriage between the Black and white races - in some states, white people were previously not allowed to marry indigenous or Asian people either (essentially “all non-whites”). 

At the time of the Loving v. Virginia case, only 3% of newlyweds were in interracial marriages. According to the Pew Research Center, roughly one-in-five (19%) newlyweds in 2019 were intermarried, up from 17% in 2015. 

Despite these growing numbers, interracial couples still report facing discrimination, disapproval, and sometimes even hostility or violence. Studies have shown that part of the reason interracial couples have higher breakup and divorce rates is that, in partnerships with one person of color and one white person, the white partner could feel inclined to end the relationship due to experiencing racial discrimination for the first time. Even if couples decide to stay together, they often face additional strain on their relationships. People who experience chronic stress in relationships are more prone to worse health, including poor sleep quality, high blood pressure, lower mortality rates, and higher tendency to suffer from additional chronic conditions. 

The Today Show recently sat down with six interracial couples to talk about their experience with race and racism. They found that people of color in interracial relationships often feel invalidated because their partners aren’t able to relate to their experiences. During the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd, many white partners in interracial relationships realized the fear their Black partners face with authority and police for the first time. The larger white population at the time struggled to understand the impacts of systemic racism and police brutality. 

CBS News also has specific reports of interracial couples, from the 70s to now, facing discrimination in their daily lives. In 1974, Joseph (white) and Martha (Black) Rossignol got married in Natchez, Mississippi after local officials tried to stop them. The couple wasn’t able to find anyone willing to sell them a marriage license. They shared, “We just ran into a lot of racism, a lot of issues, a lot of problems. You’d go into a restaurant, people wouldn’t want to serve you. When you’re walking down the street together, it was like you’ve got a contagious disease.” Similarly, a white woman named Michele Farrel was dating a Black man in Port Huron, Michigan in the 80s when the couple was denied the opportunity to rent an apartment. The woman who was showing Michele and her boyfriend apartments told them, “I definitely don’t rent to mixed couples.” As mentioned before, these kinds of encounters can also result in violence. In August of 2016, a man named Daniel Rowe stabbed a Black man and his white girlfriend in Olympia, Washington. Fortunately, the couple survived the incident and Rowe was arrested on the spot. 

The prejudice and hostility that interracial couples have faced throughout history is horrendous, although America has supposedly made much progress when it comes to their acceptance. William Bundy, a Black man married to a white woman living in Maryland, claimed “From the time that we first got married to now, I’ve seen much less head-turns when we walk by, even in rural settings.” Interracial couples are also seen more widely in books, television shows, movies, and commercials, as well as among celebrities and public figures. Grey’s Anatomy, Ginny and Georgia, and The Good Place are a few examples of popular TV shows that feature interracial relationships. The current vice president, Kamala Harris, is also in an interracial marriage with her partner Douglas Emhoff. As representation expands, the country moves closer and closer to full acceptance of interracial marriage. 

*stigma: a set of negative and unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something (Merriam-Webster)

**miscegenation: marriage or cohabitation…between a white person and a member of another race (Merriam-Webster)