Don't want to start a race thread, but I read this really interesting article in the LA times and though it deserved discussion. Plus, it is only tangentially related to race, so I guess it isn't too controversial. It is more about another reason why the marriage rate is probably falling in America.
Interracial couples increasingly common, though many aren't marrying
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-adv-...1986.story
I was actually expecting the rates to be higher, but I guess it is because I mostly know the dating world and not serious couples who live together or are married. Still, only 9% of of couples that live together and 4% of married couples are interracial. That is still pretty low, especially considering how everyone thinks we live in a melting pot. I guess it makes sense when you consider that most of the country is still somewhat segregated by race to a certain extent. The article also tries to speculate as to why there is a difference in the co-habitation rate versus the married rate.
I think they kind of throw white people under the bus with the quote above because there is resistance to marrying someone of another race for most races in this country, especially when you poll older people. Either way, there still is some resistance there and it is real, so there is no point trying to hide it. I myself couldn't think of any other reasons for the discrepancy between interracial couples that live together and interracial married couples, so I guess their explanation is probably right.
Interracial couples increasingly common, though many aren't marrying
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-adv-...1986.story
Quote:Quote:
More Americans are forming serious relationships across lines of race and ethnicity, moving in with or marrying people who check a different box on their census form. Married or unmarried, interracial couples were more than twice as common in 2012 than in 2000, U.S. Census Bureau data show.
Yet not all kinds of relationships are as likely to cross those lines. Racially and ethnically mixed couples are much more common among Americans who are living together, unmarried, than those who have tied the knot, a Census Bureau analysis released last week shows.
Last year, 9% of unmarried couples living together came from different races, compared with about 4% of married couples. The same gap exists for Latinos — who are not counted as a race by the Census Bureau — living with or marrying people who aren't Latino.
I was actually expecting the rates to be higher, but I guess it is because I mostly know the dating world and not serious couples who live together or are married. Still, only 9% of of couples that live together and 4% of married couples are interracial. That is still pretty low, especially considering how everyone thinks we live in a melting pot. I guess it makes sense when you consider that most of the country is still somewhat segregated by race to a certain extent. The article also tries to speculate as to why there is a difference in the co-habitation rate versus the married rate.
Quote:Quote:
Earlier studies have shown that even among younger couples, Americans are more likely to cross racial lines when they move in together than when they marry. Scholars are still puzzling over why, musing that interracial couples may face added barriers to marrying — or may be less impatient to do so.
Some researchers believe the numbers are tied to continued challenges for interracial and interethnic couples in gaining acceptance from friends and family. Marriage can bring family into the picture — and stir up their disapproval — in ways that rooming together does not...
...Many older Americans, especially whites, are still uneasy about interracial marriage, a Pew Research Center study released three years ago showed. Only about half of white respondents ages 50 to 64 said they would be fine with one of their relatives marrying someone of any other race or ethnicity.
I think they kind of throw white people under the bus with the quote above because there is resistance to marrying someone of another race for most races in this country, especially when you poll older people. Either way, there still is some resistance there and it is real, so there is no point trying to hide it. I myself couldn't think of any other reasons for the discrepancy between interracial couples that live together and interracial married couples, so I guess their explanation is probably right.