Love overcomes racial divides, interracial marriages increasing

ALMOST A THIRD of Asian/American marriages involves a partner who is not Asian.

Interracial marriages are on the rise and Asian/Americans are leading the way in breaking down what used to be against the law. In 2015, 17 percent of all newlyweds in the country had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity.

Asians were most likely to intermarry, with 29 percent of newlywed Asians married to someone of a different race or ethnicity, followed by Hispanics at 27 percent, Blacks at 18 percent and whites at 11 percent, according to the report.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, there are dramatic gender differences among Asian newlyweds. Asian women are far more likely to intermarry than their male counterparts. In 2015, just over one-third (36%) of newlywed Asian women had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, compared with 21% of newlywed Asian men.

“More broadly, one-in-10 married people in 2015 — not just those who recently married — had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity. This translates into 11 million people who were intermarried,” says the report.

Overall, the Pew reports says that interracial marriages have seen a fivefold increase since 1967, when only 3 percent of marriages were interracial.

In 1967, the courts ruled thatI ruled that marriage across racial lines was legal throughout the country in the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) represented Mildred Jeter, who was black, and her childhood sweetheart, white construction worker Richard Loving. The couple was unable to lawfully reside in the state together due to laws banning marriage between Blacks and whites.

Until this ruling, interracial marriages were forbidden in many states. The Pew report was released on the 50th anniversary of that ruling.

Other interesting findings of the report:

• The most common racial or ethnic pairing among newlywed intermarried couples is one Hispanic and one white spouse (42%). Next most common are one white and one Asian spouse (15%) and one white and one multiracial spouse (12%).

• Newlyweds living in metropolitan areas are more likely to be intermarried than those in non-metropolitan areas (18% vs. 11%). This pattern is driven entirely by whites; Hispanics and Asians are more likely to intermarry if they live in non-metro areas. The rates do not vary by place of residence for blacks.

• Among black newlyweds, the gender gap in intermarriage increases with education: For those with a high school diploma or less, 17% of men vs. 10% of women are intermarried, while among those with a bachelor’s degree, black men are more than twice as likely as black women to intermarry (30% vs. 13%).

• Among newlyweds, intermarriage is most common for those in their 30s (18%). Even so, 13% of newlyweds ages 50 and older are married to someone of a different race or ethnicity.

• There is a sharp partisan divide in attitudes about interracial marriage. Roughly half (49%) of Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party say the growing number of people of different races marrying each other is a good thing for society. Only 28% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents share that view.

The phenomenon of interracial marriages is not surprising. That is what happens when an increasingly diverse population works together, attends school with each other and live in e nie\\eighborhoods that  are racially mixed.

 With the number of interracial marriages on the rise, the fastest growing segment of the population are the children of those pairings.racial inequities and segregation doesn't exist, or even that racism is on the wane. There's still plenty of racial animosities and hatred around to dispel any Pollyanish conclusions.

But with all the mingling going around, people are doing what comes naturally. The report and census stats indicate that maybe just maybe -- love conquers all.

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