Study: Interracial marriage, acceptance growing

[Tenofovir]

So should people deny their love to account for the sins of others.

Racism is a sin.

Your love may result in hardship for your children. It would be noble to sacrifice and find a a person closer to your race/culture (whom you’d also love) to allow your children a better life.

Racism need not be a sin. It can just be a lack of acceptance, which is not based on hate but of not being able to relate to other people and in considering them different. This is especially so when there is historical baggage or with cultures which are historically and traditionally isolated.

 

[bbarrick8383]

My high school sweetheart went on to marry a black man, they have two beautiful girls now. I never was upset that he was black, was a tad torn up for a good while that it wasn’t me and he was a childhood friend though.

 

[ringil]

Your love may result in hardship for your children. It would be noble to sacrifice and find a a person closer to your race/culture (whom you’d also love) to allow your children a better life.

Racism need not be a sin. It can just be a lack of acceptance, which is not based on hate but of not being able to relate to other people and in considering them different. This is especially so when there is historical baggage or with cultures which are historically and traditionally isolated.

What is noble is to show Christ to the world, and that may mean not being “of the world.” We Christians shape the world we do not alter our lives due to others sin. We Christians “convert the world” we are not subject to it, but to Christ Himself.

Racism is a sin. Prejudice may not not be as we are all prejudiced of some facets of life to one degree of another. To steriotype based on race is wrong-headed and as Christians we are called to promote love and unity, not sew division, especially with our fellow Catholics.

Sure, not everyone will fall in love with someone of a different race, but for those who do- it is a value-free choice and a value-free life to give children.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is of course assuming that hispanics are a separate race.

Good question, particularly since “Hispanics” vary greatly in “race”. The figures in the OP talk about “mixed” marriages in terms of “race” and “ethnicity”. So, what’s “ethnicity”? Does a “ethnically mixed” marriage include that of a person of German descent marrying one of Italian descent (both being American-born), or does the German have to marry a “Hispanic” (who could be of Italian or German descent if he/she is Argentinian or even a Mexican)?

Mexicans do talk about “La Raza” (the race). But “the race” itself is a mix. There are Mexicans of “the race” that are as “white” as “white” gets, and there are those who are very heavily (but not entirely) “Indio” (Indian), and most are some of both.

So, to Mexicans, I guess, (except, I think Mayan Mexicans, who are not of “the race” and don’t claim to be, and don’t even much like “the race”) they are a “race”, unless, of course, they are descended from Mexicans who have lived in the U.S. for 300 years and are thoroughly Americanized, or consider themselves “pure Spanish”, which “Californianos” do. Well, and if you’re “Indio”, you are not of “the race” either. You are, properly speaking, only of “the race” if you are not of a single “race”. :whacky:

 

[Luna_Lovecraft]

Your love may result in hardship for your children. It would be noble to sacrifice and find a a person closer to your race/culture (whom you’d also love) to allow your children a better life.

Many things we do could result in hardships for our kids. The way to deal with that isn’t to cower to to the whims of an unjust society; it’s to instill pride in our kids of their heritage(s) and to teach them to gently but firmly stand up to bullies who may discriminate or otherwise look down on them.

There’s nothing noble about giving in to racism or discrimination.

Luna

 

[St_Francis]

The major issue with mixed race children is that they may have problems later in life in finding acceptance in the culture. Often both races reject the child and it has negative effects on them.

We are raising our children as serious Catholics. It may be that in the future people will not accept them. Should we just raise them as secularists?

A baby with Down’s syndrome may not be accepted by the wider family: should the parents have an abortion?

 

[ringil]

A baby with Down’s syndrome may not be accepted by the wider family: should the parents have an abortion?

Indeed, good point.

Also, my wife and I had a daughter knowing that there was a 50% chance she would inherit my eye condition of congenital cataracts and yet knowing this, and the challenges she might face, we gave birth to her and, since she did inherit my condition, we are treating it.

 

[psr13]

The major issue with mixed race children is that they may have problems later in life in finding acceptance in the culture. Often both races reject the child and it has negative effects on them.

I know a whole bunch of mixed race children, and none have any of these problems.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I pray that my sons find good Catholic girls with solid family values, who want TONS of kids. I don’t care what they look like.

 

[Tsuwano]

The major issue with mixed race children is that they may have problems later in life in finding acceptance in the culture. Often both races reject the child and it has negative effects on them.

Well, this could be said of any child. A child born to a couple of the same race may have future problems finding acceptance in the culture if he or she wishes to abstain from sexual intercourse before marriage. A child who declines to smoke marijuana may have trouble fitting into the youth culture of his or her school. A child who expresses a wish to become a Catholic priest and live a life of celibacy may have trouble find acceptance in his own family. A child may be rejected for a whole host of reasons which could have negative effects on them and which have nothing to do with whether their parents are of two different races. The point is to teach the child to have pride in who he or she is and to relish the acceptance they find in God.

 

[agnes_therese]

This is still an issue in this day and age? Really?

No, seriously, really?

Melanin should not dictate who anyone loves, IMHO.

Unfortunately, it is. I’ve seen it in person. Very sad.

 

[rlg94086]

That last would not be my preference, but my demand. It’ll be hard enough for a mixed marriage to work even in 2012 without the overriding problems of being of different faiths.

Will once they’re 18. . . . . .

I’m with you though. I certainly don’t want a Protestant in the family.

FYI, as a former Protestant who married a Catholic and converted 4 years later, I would have to say “it can work out.”

When my wife was pregnant with our first, we agreed it is best to raise kids in one faith, shared by both parents. I said I would try the Catholic Church first, and then we would try Protestant churches, if it wasn’t right for me. Thankfully, I recognized the truth in Christ’s Church.

Oh…to keep this on topic, I’m the only white guy in the household…oppressed minority.

 

[rlg94086]

The major issue with mixed race children is that they may have problems later in life in finding acceptance in the culture. Often both races reject the child and it has negative effects on them.

I could see where that might happen, but that is a minor issue in most locations in the US. I haven’t lived everywhere, so I can’t speak for the whole country. Personally, I think race is overemphasized, especially with government documents.

I had a situation where my son’s 3rd grade teacher called the house because my son didn’t check a box. I said “mark it white this year,” to which she responded “well, he really should know his ancestry.” I took great offense. He knows both sets of grandparents and their ancestry. My kids are brought up understanding that they are Americans. We joke about racial differences (e.g. my “oppressed minority” comment), but they understand that race is immaterial.

 

[John7]

gene pool mixing is healthy

 

[hannajomar]

I’m white of European dissent. My husband is mixed ethnicity (African-American, Chinese, Caribbean, …) but generally self-identifies as black or African-American. For us, it has never been a big deal. My family has absolutely accepted him with open arms. One grandmother was uncomfortable about it before she met him. She told my mom she would just worry about what our children would go through. But once she spent time with him, he became just another grandson. Some people in his family seem a bit uncomfortable, but no one has ever said anything to us about it, so we just let sleeping dogs lie. In public, no one seems to care. I thought that since we live in New York City there’s much weirder things going on than a couple with different skin colors. But we were recently driving through Tennessee and stopped at a little diner at night. No one there care either. Not even a little bit.

Yes, there are cultural differences between our families that are largely based on ethnic backgrounds. But that’s life. We both have a lot of respect for family, so when in Rome, we do as the Romans do.

 

[asia53]

The major issue with mixed race children is that they may have problems later in life in finding acceptance in the culture. Often both races reject the child and it has negative effects on them.

I’m afraid, Tenofovir is correct. I’m a mixed race—Mom is Japanese, Dad was an American.
My teen years were difficult, a time when young people are exploring/searching for identity. I wasn’t fully accepted in either world.

Fortunately, I didn’t experience out and out hatred, as some mixed raced children do. A few insensitive comments or questions, which very effectively pointed out how different my siblings and I were from the others.

It’s only been better in the last 15 years or so.

As to government documents, I refuse to check any of the ethnic boxes. My silent protest.

 

[Bezant]

The major issue with mixed race children is that they may have problems later in life in finding acceptance in the culture. Often both races reject the child and it has negative effects on them.

I’m afraid, Tenofovir is correct. I’m a mixed race—Mom is Japanese, Dad was an American.
My teen years were difficult, a time when young people are exploring/searching for identity. I wasn’t fully accepted in either world.

Fortunately, I didn’t experience out and out hatred, as some mixed raced children do. A few insensitive comments or questions, which very effectively pointed out how different my siblings and I were from the others.

It’s only been better in the last 15 years or so.

As to government documents, I refuse to check any of the ethnic boxes. My silent protest.

That experience is very true for you Asia and for others, but it’s wrong, and rather ignorant to imply confusion naturally follows for mixed-race children.

I’m also mixed race (black and white) but I never suffered the so-called “tragic mulatto” experience, the pressure to “pick” a side, or alienation because nobody looked like me. Much of that has to do with my upbringing and location in a multicultural neighbourhood; as I said, interracial couples are fairly common in the U.K., and black-white relationships are not at all unusual.

Besides location there’s also history to consider–I’m not really surprised, comparing U.S. and U.K. historical attitudes to interracial marriage, that it’s still an issue worth comment in the U.S. The English never banned interracial marriage (unlike White Americans) even if they were opposed to it, back in the day. And Black Caribbeans have always mixed with Asians, Whites, etc., and since black identity wasn’t an issue for Black Caribbeans until they immigrated to the U.K., it wasn’t an issue to marry whites. Some Black Americans, however, oppose black-white marriages because they’ll dilute “black identity,” while at the same time insisting that a mixed-race child can only have a black identity.

 

[Bezant]

gene pool mixing is healthy

There’s actually a bit of science behind that.

 

[asia53]

That experience is very true for you Asia and for others, but it’s wrong, and rather ignorant to imply confusion naturally follows for mixed-race children.

Wrong? Ignorant? Choice of words–makes all the difference in the world, Bezant.

I didn’t say confusion naturally followed. I said it happened to me. My father was in the military, and my exposure to mixed race children is greater than most people. Very few of them, including my siblings, didn’t experience what I did.

I’m glad you didn’t. Wonderful!

 

[TheRealJuliane]

FYI, as a former Protestant who married a Catholic and converted 4 years later, I would have to say “it can work out.”

When my wife was pregnant with our first, we agreed it is best to raise kids in one faith, shared by both parents. I said I would try the Catholic Church first, and then we would try Protestant churches, if it wasn’t right for me. Thankfully, I recognized the truth in Christ’s Church.

Oh…to keep this on topic, I’m the only white guy in the household…oppressed minority.