How much of a stigma was there regarding interethnic marriage in the past?

[_Jumper_]

If there was a strong one, that would be a better argument to use in favor of equal rights for homosexuals than the interracial marriage one, since most Americans can identify with interethnic marriage (4 out of 5 married Americans are married to someone of a different ethnicity). Interracial marriage is still taboo in Republican areas and is rare (about 2%).

[HornBuckler]

1. Unfortunately

Repubs Think It's A Matter Of CHOCIE To Be Gay... I Guess It's A Matter Of CHOICE To Be Attracted To A Different Etnic Group Too... It Holds No Friggin' Water...

[_Jumper_]

2. Excellent point

About 2/5 of Americans support civil unions. If we can convince some moderate Americans who oppose civil unions due to inertia, we can get them passed. Sadly, homosexual marriage is at least a decade away.

[philosophie_en_rose]

16. Isn't it a matter of choice to marry someone from another culture?

If interracial marriage is none of the state's business, then homosexual marriage should be as well.

My parents were married and the world didn't descend into bestiality, plural marriages, or anarchy.

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. In some white circles it was considered the equivalent of bestiality

Opposition from non-whites tended to be centered around the popularity of group "interventions" that tended to impact somewhat less positively on the non-white partner.

[JCMach1]

5. High stigmatization

by white culture... Even as late as the 1970's in the south.

[argyl]

20. Whereas interethnic marriage has always been accepted in the North.

OK,in times past the hatred and opposition was more virulent in the case of interracial marriage(particularly black and white) in the South but on a more subtle basis it was always so in the North as well.
And now?Don't be surprised if much of the South is more tolerant than the North as a whole.
I grew up in Central Texas and dating between Mexican and Anglo kids was so commonplace no one even batted an eye.

[madrchsod]

6. in some white circles

it still is.

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. I regret that I cannot dispute that, I did not mention it because

I realize it is a sensitive topic for some whites, who to their credit, wish that it were not so, but wish it so intensely that they prefer not to be reminded that it does.

[varun]

23. as recently as 2000...

...41% of voters in Alabama were against interracial marriages

http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/alabama.interracial/

[roguevalley]

4. Huge stigma. You could be jailed. Or you could be killed. Many of the

children born into such unions had often to be raised or were
raised by their relatives, that is, the relatives they
most matched. Very, very, very sad time. It was against
the law until just recently to be in a mixed race marriage
in Louisiana. They put colored across your drivers license
in many states even if you were 'white'.

People passed, that's how bad it was. Too bad those times
have faded from the minds of too many people. To go back
to that would be hell.

Anti-Gay Amendment: A New Jim Crow

[sallyseven]

12. Well folks

Catholics and Protestants were frownd upon.
Irish and Italian
English and French
You name it. This was in the fifties. My father had a fit because I was going to marry a Italian/Portugese.
My sister married a person of french decent.
My brother married a Polish person.
They all lasted too. My father however thought we should marry only English. God how awful that would have been.

[maveric]

17. My Ma is Sicilian and my dad was Irish. They were the 1st of either

families to "break the bloodlines", much to the objections of both families. Ma told me that at the wedding reception both side stayed on their own sides of the room never once mingling. This was in 1954 in Boston.
The marriage seemed to work out. They were together till my Dad died in 2000.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

22. Irish and Italian intermarriage is so common here in Mass

there are tons of "half-and-halfs" running around. It's the Catholic thing, I think. Mr. RR is Italian and I'm Irish.

[_Jumper_]

24. Catholic identity

How big of a Catholic identity is there, especially among Irish and Italian Americans? Is it as big as the Jewish and Muslim identities, in that it is like a quasi-ethnic group?

[Mrs. Overall]

28. My mother-in-law was Italian and my father-in-law was Irish--

married around 1957 in Boston. It was a major problem in both families.

[Exultant Democracy]

7. My Birth was illegal 15 years before I was born

I think that is pretty bad.

[_Jumper_]

9. I meant ethnicity, not race

I know about the racial issues. My question is directed to British/Irish, Japanese/Chinese, Mexican/Cuban, etc. marriages. Most Americans are products of such marriages. If there was a great stigma against them, citing it will help us get civil unions passed because most Americans can identify with it. Interracial marriage is opposed by 1/3-2/5 of white Americans and is rare so it doesn't work as well in an argument outside of blue states.

[DuctapeFatwa]

15. The distinction was slight. And where distinction exists, still is (nt)

[madrchsod]

10. i dated an american mexican girl for

over two years and boy did her dad dislike me.why? because i was white. the only reason he didn`t throw me out is because his daughter was in love with me. that was over 30yrs ago and now only a small minority think that way anymore.in my area there isn`t a mexican family that doesn`t have one or more relatives that are white. it takes time but things do change...

[_Jumper_]

11. Where do you live?

I would like to cite your experience when arguing with people that claim that Hispanics are not assimilating.

[tedoll78]

13. I seem to remember..

when Loving v Virginia was decided unanimously by the US Supreme Court in 1967 to strike-down anti-interracial marriage laws, opposition to interracial marriage was polling in the 60 or 70% range. It was a pretty steep decision. People didn't like it, but they learned to live with it.

[Cleita]

14. The Mayor of San Francisco cited this as his reason for

issuing the licenses. He said it was the same thing as the forbidden marriages between white and black or brown back in the last century. Not only that when Arnold said he was violating the Constitution, he replied that discrimination was against the Constitution.

[DemBones DemBones]

18. I live in a very conservative area but a lot of Hispanics, Indians,

Chinese, and Filipinos have settled here, in reverse chronological order (i.e. the Filipinos were first, in the seventies, then the Chinese, etc.) In the past ten years, it's become more common to see interracial couples and interracial children around town, including black/ white couples. I don't see people staring at them, either.

Edit: My brother married a Filipina more than forty years ago and it was different then, much more controversial, though not as beyond the pale (pun intended, now that I think of it) as marrying a black woman would have been.

Ironically, my mother had two good friends who were from the North and often complained about Southern racial injustice. Care to guess who didn't want to hold my mother's first grandchild? It was obvious they thought he was a little too dark-skinned.

People are strange. An old friend I taught with here told me about her experience taking in a black child when his mother was hospitalized and thought she might have to put him in foster care. This took place probably thirty years ago, if not more. She lived in a rather expensive neighborhood and her next-door neighbors had their house up for sale. After about a week of the black kid playing in the front yard, she got a call from the neighbor, asking if she could come over. My friend geared herself up for telling the neighbor off, assuming the neighbor was going to ask her to keep the black child out of sight while she was trying to sell the house. Instead, the neighbor brought some flowers for the boy to take to his mother for Mother's Day.

Sometimes people disappoint you, sometimes they surprise you with goodness.

:shrug:

[_Jumper_]

19. Just curious, where do you live?

n/t

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

26. My maternal grandmother was Irish Catholic

and my maternal grandfather was English Protestant but they were both second generation. Grandpa converted to Catholicism in 1919, but he never practiced. Family lore has it that Grandpa only set foot in a Catholic Church six times in his life: when he became a Catholic, married my grandmother, when my mother and my two uncles were married, and for his funeral Mass.

My grandmother's entire family accepted him, but I don't think my great-grandfather and one of my great aunts ever got over the fact that he converted to marry my grandmother.

[DemBones DemBones]

27. I live in Georgia, and, before redistricting, my

congressman was the infamous Bob Barr! But, you know, black kids and white kids have been going to school together for a long time now and that makes a difference in attitudes. The military used to be a great force for advancing tolerance, back when more people served.

I added some stuff to my other post, about the past.

[stevedeshazer]

21. Huge

In my younger days, it wasn't even polite to suggest such a thing.

I learned yesterday that my ex-wife (white, me too) is dating a black man. I say more power to her, but her family is totally freaking out. They live in a small town, so everyone will know and gossip.

There is still a huge stigma involving interracial relationships of any kind.

A coworker of mine who is black was riding in my car with me, and we got stares and dirty looks and muttered comments for just being together in public, even though we're just friends.

[_Jumper_]

25. Wow

Do you live in a Republican area?

[DemBones DemBones]

29. Catholic/ Protestant marriages were quite controversial

in the sixties and seventies, as well as before.

In fairness, families want their children to be happy and marriages between people with similar backgrounds work out better, on average, than those between people with very different backgrounds.

White Americans have very different backgrounds from white Europeans as do black Americans and black Africans, and a lot of parents would worry about their child marrying someone from another country for that reason, even if their skin color and religion is the same.

[The Zanti Regent]

30. I'm a white man and my wife is a British African.

My parents and family disowned me for marrying the woman I love. Time and time again, I heard my mother and father call me a "N" lover. They threw the bible in my face, quoting a bunch of asinine verses that allegedly opposed race mixing. Of course, that didn't stop them or the rest of my family from going to the Assemblies of God every Sunday to get another dose of racism from those ignorant moronic so-called preachers.

I could care less about them. my wife means more to me than anything else in the universe and she feels the same way about me. We don't need to listen to any more racist Christian bullshit, thank you!