Interracial Marriage.” Pp. 245-263 in Climbing Jacob’s Ladder: The Enduring Legacy of African- American Families. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

This chapter discusses the trends in interracial marriage. It talks about the social significance of the interracial marriage and the stability of an interracial marriage. The number of interracial marriages is small, but they are increasing. From 1940 to 1990, it has increased from 1 to over 6 percent. There are more black male- white, female marriages than black-female, white-male marriages.

The number of black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 211,000 in 1990. This represented 5.4% of the married couples that involved black partners. The number of black-male, white-females marriages increased from 41,000 in 1970 to 150,000 in 1990, which represented 3.8% of black marriages. While theses numbers were on a consistent incline, the number of black-female, white-male marriages did increase from 1970 to 1990, but the pattern was not as consistent. The numbers grew from 24,000 to 61,000 in the 20 years, but there was a decrease in the trend between 1984 and 1986 (64,000-45,000), and

Payne, Richard J. 1998. “Interracial Relationships and the One-Drop Rule.” Pp.

The social class characteristics of this sample showed that theses couples were on the same socioeconomic status when they met and married. Also, there was a pattern of upward social mobility present in the black men of this sample, and there was no mobility among the white men and the women. All of the spouses were asked their original social class in an attempt to test Merton’s theory of reciprocal compensation, which states that black men will marry white women in a lower social class because they believe they will have a greater social status if they are associated with being white.

This study highly supports the structural theory based on the responses of these couples. Although some of the couples said that their relationships were initially based on factors on the racial motivations theory, theses couples still met in integrated settings and were similar to their mates, which support the structural theory. Perhaps this suggests that the two theories go hand in hand.

This chapter discusses the lives of today’s interracial marriage. The information provided is based on recent literature on interracial marriage; however, because of the limited amount of research that is done on this subject, some of the information also comes from discussions with people involved in interracial marriages. Because of stereotypes associated with the crossing of racial lines, interracial couples are often faced with questions, discrimination, rude comments, and rejection. Even with the decrease in the legal barriers in 1967, these relationships are still looked down upon, and the people involved are treated with disrespect. It is hard for the couple to maintain the relationship because they have to deal with the lack of acceptance from the people around them, and the also have to deal with the normal problems that comes with any relationship. The level of difficulty of the struggle the couple must endure is usually based on their socioeconomic level, their level of education, and the community that they live in. Although there are several varieties of interracial relationships, the black-white relationship is the one of most controversy. Despite the fact that black-white marriages account for the smallest proportion of interracial marriages, it is the subject of the most negative and racial attitudes. They are the ones that experience the most scrutiny from family and friends, especially the union of black males and white females. This is most likely due to the past relations between African Americans and whites. Many couples see this experience as an interpersonal growth opportunity, but at the same time it can leave them socially, emotionally, psychologically, and physically vulnerable. However, studies show that an establishment of a strong sense of security, self-esteem, and self-confidence (individually and as a couple) helps in dealing with vulnerability and ignoring harassment. The chapter goes on to discuss the significance and the insignificance of race between the interracial couples. The majority of the couples discussed married each other because of love. When the issue of race comes up, they don’t deny the fact that they are different, but they just view it in a different context. As time goes on, and more black-white relationships form, the significance tends to decrease.

This chapter has a slightly different topic than that of the others throughout this paper, but the idea is still quite similar. It discusses how interracial relationships are different than other kinds of relationships, and accounts for why this is. This chapter accomplishes this by looking into the perceptions of the “outsiders” and the “insiders” of the following interracial relationships: male-male friendships, female-female friendships, male-female friendships, male-female romantic relationships, male-ma

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