Strong families are created when between a husband and a wife there is a lot in common: views, interests, hobbies, culture, religion, nationality, mentality, habits, and the language they speak, etc. Even their day regimen matters: “owls” who go to bed late and “larks” who go to bed early and get up early will inevitably quarrel every day if they get married. This marriage may end in divorce, having got on each other’s nerves . Those married couples where both spouses have an identical day regimen, a similar nationality and belief and, in general, more common features when they are about to marry, are likely to build a happier family on the ground of mutual understanding and love. Hence, the answers to the foregoing questions should be found out at the first date. Ironically, people treat these questions thoughtlessly today, which results in subsequent family problems.
Disadvantages of Interracial Marriages
Interracial marriages were forbidden by English Protestants Calvinists in the British colonies in North America in 1600. This “reasonable ban” had existed till 1967 when it was cancelled. After the cancellation, interracial marriages got popular bringing numerous problems with them due to an enormous cultural abyss between people of different races and nationalities. Neither scientific perspectives nor the Bible approve of interracial marriages.
Scientifically,, as practice shows, genetic crossing of animals does no good. The worst thing is that hybrids perish quickly. To illustrate, the hybrid between a donkey and a horse is not capable to sire. In other cases, it is more difficult for a hybrid to adapt to the environment and to survive than for genetically pure individuals. The same happens to people. Children born in interracial marriages find it more difficult to adapt both to the people of their father and mother alike. Either side considers them to be strangers or abnormal people.
Despite unfavorable prognoses, the generation of children born in interracial marriages has already grown. The next is growing up. This has led to important amendments to overall attitude of the society to interracial marriages. It seems that official barriers to marriage registration between representatives of the white and black races, do not exist. However, such couples quite often face boorish service at restaurants, misunderstanding in a family and sneering treatment at work.
As one sociological research has showed, which had been carried out by the Washington Post, Henry Kayser’s Family fund and the Harvard University, the vast majority of interracial couples do not feel any discomfort in communication with friends and colleagues. More than a half of them consider that their children will have certain advantages in comparison to children born in intra racial marriages.Freek Bin, the professor of sociology of the Californian University, argues that the relation to interracial marriages changes with an amazing speed and, probably, “soon people will cease to understand what they are inquired by sociologists about”.
Both critics and supporters of interracial marriages hold important arguments to support their positions. Specifically, the experts carrying out researches into marriages between people of different nationalities, have found some negative points of these unions.
Interracial marriages are associated with discrepancy of cultures, traditions, customs, and approaches to education. Because of these divergences, various disagreements, even conflicts, happen quite often. Such aspects of life as daily observance of rituals and customs, culinary traditions as well as religious practices are important since they are encountered during religious holidays, wedding celebrations, rituals related to birth and education of children.
Interracial marriages quite often meet misunderstanding and condemnation from people around. Not only neighbors, colleagues, friends, strangers, and distant relatives can reproach, discuss, gossip and look for insincerity, material benefit of one or both spouses , but also close people, for example, relatives, whom the couple expects to rely on, often oppose the union.
Some ancient people are supposed to impart the feeling of national pride and fear of assimilation, possessing confidence that it is extremely necessary to make a family within the nation. Moreover, even nowadays, during the globalization era, many representatives of such ethnoses are sure that it is extremely necessary to communicate only with “tribespeople” in everyday life in order not to lose originality, and striking and distinctive national traits, and not to change, dilute, or lose original customs and traditions in an interracial union.
One more disadvantage concerns those who live in a different country that is not their own. In these families at least one partner faces not only new mentality and lifestyle, but also encounters an essentially different legal base and health care organization. The young family faces difficulties from the beginning; yet, hardships may also arise at different stages of any family’s life and formation. From the organizational point of view, it is not easy and is rather troublesome to move to a constant place of residence to another country, to receive a visa, a residence permit or citizenship. Additionally, the important role in relationship that are bound to develop in a new place of residence for one of the couple is attributed to a language barrier. It is not a secret that many wives and husbands, who are “torn off from their roots”, start missing their house, their relatives and friends, as well as favorite places in the homeland and their habitual food. One may say that this is a trifle in comparison with great love. Yet, one won’t deny that the whole life of a person consists of such particles.
The question of children born in interracial unions is of great importance to the relations in a family. If an interracial marriage is about to crash, real difficulties start . The spouse, who has arrived from another country, often appears less protected under the law. While the judgment is being made with whom of two parents the children will live, the court does not consider wishes of the children or parents, while placing above all the interests of the state. . So, in case parents start to fight over their child, as well as accuse each other of inadequate taking of parental responsibilities and even in child abuse, it often happens that kids with living parents may get to shelters and even get adopted.
Advantages of Interracial Marriages
According to psychologists, international marriages teach the society of tolerance and the ability to treat the representatives of different nations with understanding and to promote the improvement of the relations between the countries and ethnoses (Spigner 22). In such families, legal collisions between the states are more often discussed and resolved. Due to the mutual interest in culture and history, public life increases, while social cooperation is stimulated.
Psychologists are certain that it does not matter if a union is one-national or multi-national. Wellbeing, harmony and durability of a family depends only on its members and their ability to forgive and forget offense, on their tolerance and patience, readiness for new experience and ability to respect, as well as on warmth and completeness of feelings, trust to each other, seriousness of attitude to the family and partner, responsibility, mutual attachment, and love.
According to the findings of the National Center of Statistics of Health of the USA, interracial families break up much more often than families where both spouses are from the same race. The risk of divorce for a “multi-colored” family which has existed for 10 years makes 61 %, while it is 11 % for a “monoracial” family. No wonder – the cultural abyss between the people of different races and nationalities is so enormous that no interracial marriage can be happy and strong.
At the same time, four of ten Americans declared that at least once they made an appointment to representatives of another race, and three of ten had “serious relations”. This indicator is much higher among younger people. Only 55 percent of parents of white teenagers confirmed that they will not object to their kids’ marriage to a representative of some other race, while 86 percent of parents of black children showed their complacence.
The interracial families made by celebrities are well-known. For example, the director and actor Woody Allen is married to an Asian, Robert de Niro – to an Afro-American, the former Minister of Defense in Bill Clinton’s administration William Cohen – to an Afro-American, too. In turn, the president of the USA Barack Obama, a golfer Tiger Woods, actors Keanu Reeves and Holly Berry have “multi-colored” parents.
The most widespread type of interracial marriage in the USA is the one between a white man and an Asian woman. 20 % of all marriagesof Asians in the USA, as well as 35 % of all marriages of Asians who were born in the USA fall to this category. The second most widespread type of the interracial marriage is a union between a black man and a white woman. About 6 % of the marriages made by the Afro-Americans refer to this category .
Certainly, marriages where a husband and a wife belong to the same race and nationality are optimal, yet, it seems, if representatives of two different races love each other and maintain trust, respect and understanding between them, they should stop having doubts about their marriage.