Love's Revolution: "Love and Revolution" and "Love and Fear"
Maria P.P. Root describes how interracial marriages endure discrimination and rejection, not just from the community but sometimes even from their families. Interracial couples have to struggle and fight for their love and even if they are faced with many obstacles, it is the strength of their love that keeps them together.
In interracial marriages, the parents are usually the ones that reject the proposal because, depending on their race, they think their son or daughter is marrying down or up an that will lead to future problems (Root, 2001, p. 5). If a white woman or man marries an African American, the parents of the white individual will think they are going under their social class and that the African American is only using them to get above. However, the African American parents reject the interracial marriage because they think the white partner is only using their son or daughter and that they will be seen as inferior.
Parents will think that they did something wrong in their upbringing because their child is marrying outside the race. The parent's insistence in their children marrying inside their race is out of their own fear. They fear that their social status and social mobility can be affected by an interracial marriage. The "what will people say?" is always a huge factor (Root, 2001, p. 21). They bring up issues, such as how will the children be identified. That it will be difficult for them to belong to two different races. Many children feel that they are part of two worlds, but do not belong to them. Like Roxane Farmanfarmaian, from Half and Half, who felt she had to choose between them, causing confusion and struggles to find her identity (Chiawei O'Hearn, 1998, p. 28-37). However, what parents should be most worried about is their child's happiness. Not "what will people say," but what is the best for their child and who will make them happy.
There are many interracial marriages between Caucasians, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and others. However, the interracial couple that is mostly criticized is the Caucasian and African American. The white community wants to keep control and keep their position as the superior race. Many laws have been made to keep interracial marriages from occurring and to protect "whiteness." White communities have discriminated against other races, such as with the "one drop rule" and anti-miscegenation laws. Stereotypes have been made to keep the white man in control. White men could interracially marry, but white women could not. Asian men were marked as effeminate and African American men were stereotyped as dangerous and only wanting white women (Root, 2001, p. 11).
As interracial marriage increases, there will be greater chances of prejudice and discrimination to decrease. As the interracial marriages have children, these children will belong to two races. These children will get the future and hopefully it will be a future that does not have such strong racial separations. The love the interracial couples have will help them overcome the racism and rejection they face and they will influence others to not give up and fight to be with the people they love.
I agree with Roots position that interracial marriages do have many obstacles to overcome and that it is still hard to be an interracial couple today, even if many obstacles have diminished. I know that interracial marriages are difficult to keep, especially when your own family is not supporting you. My cousin dated an African American man for 3 years and her parents did not say anything. They did not tell her they approved of him, but they did not reject him. However, when they got engaged, her parents became outraged. They did not want her to marry him because they thought that she was marrying down. Her older sisters, one is married to a Mexican (married in the same race) and the other married a white man( her parents saw it as her marrying up), never received any rejection from their parents. I know that African American stereotypes do put them at a disadvantage in the social ladder. However, Mexicans and Latinos are also discriminated against, so I think it is unfair for her parents to discriminate her African American husband, when they themselves have been discriminated. My cousin still got married, even without her parents approval, and the parent's dislike of her husband is still visible today. They have been married six years and yet her parents still think she could have done better.
Love is the main reason that interracial marriages work. If their love was not strong, then the marriage would not have overcome the community and especially the family opposition. Interracial marriages have to work harder than same-race marriages, even if interracial marriages do become more common in the future. I do not think that there will be a time in which race is not an obstacle. There will always be people who will want to have control and be superior. There will always be stereotypes of certain groups and competitions of who is better. A society of racial equality is not likely, but it is our job and the future generations to make sure that race does not continue to be such a major aspect of discrimination.
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Strong essay. Good to include the other texts as well as examples from your own family stories.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with what you have to say about discrimination. People cannot move forward, even be accepted as interracial couples until racism is out of the system. People can be prejudice in many aspects, but its hard to believe that America will be a place of equality when racism is imbedded in schools and neighborhoods. I know the book talks about interracial couples, but I feel like people needed to look further than that. People do not start dating as children, we make friends. If children were more aware of the divide that is made through ethnicities, and public school the situation might change. Integrated schools can be a benefit to children as an access different cultures, instead of certain ethnicities being seen as alien to them. When I think of elementary school there was a divide. Even in first grade I noticed that all the blond haired, blue eyed girls hung out together. It was very strange. This has a lot to do with the parents, and I was aware of this. When my school hired a black principal for the first time the PTA did everything to get him fired. I knew it was because of racism.
ReplyDeleteYou mention that love is stronger than imbedded fear, and I agree. If parents act a certain way your whole life, making sure you stayed friends with certain people, or who your parents even were friends with, then its hard to walk outside that box you were raised in. That is what is amazing about the 21st century. It is easier to say "look, you have your way of thinking, and I have mine." parents are less involved in their child's life in certain aspects.
Racism and prejudices vary. I agree that blacks have it more difficult than other ethnicities, because of the imbedded fear and ideas people have about one another. For example: My grandmother raised my mother, her brother, and sister in South Carolina. My mother always told me she was friends with African American girls, and was raised by an African American woman. I knew this because I would ask her how she learned how to French braid hair. Now, my mother is dating an African American man. My grandmother freaked out. However, my uncle is dating a Latina from New York, and my grandmother apparently loved her. This shows that for many people in the south racism runs deep between blacks and whites. There is an anger there that not many other races can produce with each other. Families of the races just want it kept in the family because of culture.