Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different races or racialized ethnicities.
In the past, such marriages were forbidden by law in Nazi Germany, certain U.S. states, and apartheid-era South Africa as miscegenation (Latin: 'mixing types') — a term which first appeared in Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro, a hoax anti-abolitionist pamphlet published in 1864. By 1960, interracial marriage was outlawed in 31 U.S. states.
Legality
Interracial marriage has been internationally protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which granted the right to marriage "without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion", since it was accepted by the UN in 1948. Since its enactment, it has been accepted by nearly every nation on the globe. Despite this, interracial marriage was not legalized in all U.S. states until Loving v. Virginia in 1967 which legalized interracial marriage in all fifty states. In addition, the UDHR is not legally binding and thus it is not necessarily reflective of global policies on interracial marriage.
A 2013 Gallup poll found that 11 percent of Americans said they disapprove of interracial marriage, compared with 94% who disapproved in 1958.Newport, Frank "In U.S., 87% Approve of Black-White Marriage, vs. 4% in 1958", Gallup News, 25 July 2013. In 1958, actor Sammy Davis Jr., who had faced a backlash for his involvement with a white woman, actress Kim Novak, briefly married a black woman to protect himself from mob violence. The opposition to interracial marriage in the United States prior to its legalization in 1967 was reflected by former president Harry S. Truman in 1963 who, when asked by a reporter if interracial marriage would become widespread in the United States, responded, "I hope not; I don't believe in it. Would you want your daughter to marry a Negro? She won't love someone who isn't her color." African Americans' approval of interracial marriage has consistently been higher than those of white Americans over the decades, and in 2013 black americans' approval (96%) was now nearly universal, while whites americans' approval was at 84%. In 2021, 94% of U.S. adults approved of interracial marriages. In the past, many jurisdictions have had regulations banning or restricting not just interracial marriage but also interracial sexual relations, including Germany during the Nazi period, South Africa under apartheid, and many states in the United States prior to the 1967 landmark Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia.
Complications A 2008 study by Jenifer Bratter and Rosalind King conducted on behalf of the Education Resources Information Center examined whether crossing racial boundaries in the United States increased the risk of divorce. Comparisons across marriage cohorts revealed that, overall, interracial couples have higher rates of divorce, particularly for those that married during the late 1980s. A 2009 study by Yuanting Zhang and Jennifer Van Hook also found that interracial couples were at increased risk of divorce. One consistent finding of this research was that gender is significantly related to divorce risk. Interracial marriages involving a White woman have a higher risk of divorce, as compared with interracial marriages involving Asian or Black women (interracial marriages involving Black women showed a decreased risk of divorce, lower than non-interracial marriages).
According to authors Stella Ting-Toomey and Tenzin Dorjee, the increased risk of divorce observed in couples with a White wife may be related to decreased support from family members and friends. They note that White women were viewed as unqualified by their non-White in-laws to raise and nurture mixed race children, due to their lack of experience in "navigating American culture as a minority". A 2018 study by Jenifer Bratter and Ellen Whitehead found that white women with mixed race children were less likely to receive family support than were non-white women with mixed race children.
In one study, White women married to Black men were more likely to report incidents of racial discrimination in public, such as inferior restaurant service or police profiling, compared to other interracial pairings. Such discriminatory factors may place these marriages at an increased risk of divorce. A study published in 2008 reported a lower risk of divorce for inter-ethnic marriages between Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. However, another study, published in 2011, found that these intermarriages were at an increased risk of divorce. Gender was found to be related to the probability of divorce, with marriages involving White women and Hispanic men having the highest risk of divorce.
Benefits
Positive interracial encounters A benefit of interracial marriages is that it increases the opportunity for positive interracial encounters. Research conducted by Pettigrew and Tropp (as cited in Latson) has found a reduction in prejudice and discrimination towards members of an out-group (someone from whom one has a different racial identity) when one has positive interracial encounters. Pettigrew and Tropp found intergroup friendships were associated with decreased intergroup prejudice. This can be explained by the "Contact Hypothesis" which is the idea that intergroup contact under appropriate conditions can effectively reduce in-group out-group prejudice. This contact does not have to be direct, but it could also be vicarious. For instance, Wright et al. found Caucasians who report knowing another Caucasian with an inter-race friend had fewer negative attitudes about non-Caucasians regardless of direct level of contact.
Wright et al. created a competition between two groups who thought the groups had been formed based on similarity. After an intergroup hostility had been established, participants observed a member of an in-group member (confederate) complete a task with an out-group person (also a confederate). The participant observed the confederate acting differently depending on the condition she observed. In the positive condition, the confederates hugged and greeted each other as pre-existing friends (positive condition). In the neutral condition, the confederates were polite to each other but not necessarily friendly. In the hostile condition, the confederates acted as if they were pre-existing enemies. Participants who were in the positive condition rated the out-group more positively on both negative characteristics such as "inflexible" and positive characteristics such as "intelligent". They concluded that merely observing a positive in-group member act positively towards an out-group member increases positive feelings towards the out-group
Mixed‐race people There are both challenges and potential benefits that come with being multiracial. Some research has previously claimed that mixed‐race individuals are perceived as more attractive than their monoracial peers. However, such claims have been challenged on the grounds that they rely on oversimplified assumptions about genetic distinctiveness and ignore the substantial role that culture and socialization play in shaping beauty ideals.
Critics argue that applying heterosis – the idea that genetic diversity inherently enhances physical traits – to human populations is problematic because traditional racial categories are not biologically discrete. Although earlier studies (e.g., those by Rhodes et al. and Elena Stepanova) reported higher attractiveness ratings for some mixed‐race faces, subsequent analyses have shown that attractiveness is a complex social construct that varies with context, time, and cultural influences rather than being solely determined by genetic factors.
There are additional challenges associated with being multiracial. For example, many multiracial individuals struggle with discerning who they are. A 2012 survey found that one‐fifth of respondents feel pressure to claim just one race, while one‐quarter experience confusion about their racial identity. This complexity can subject multiracial individuals to a different kind of discrimination than that experienced by monoracial people. For instance, Sarah Gaither has found that multiracial individuals often face rejection from multiple racial groups – for example, those with one Black and one White parent may feel they are not "black enough" for predominantly Black groups, nor "white enough" for predominantly White groups.
At the same time, many multiracial people report that the fluidity of their identity – allowing them to navigate between different social groups – can contribute to higher self-esteem, increased social engagement, and enhanced well-being. In some cases, this flexibility has even been linked to improved creative problem-solving skills when individuals are prompted to consider the multiple facets of their identity.
Americas
United States
The first interracial marriage in the territory that would eventually become the United States took place in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida: Luisa de Abrego, a free black woman, married Miguel Rodriguez, a Spanish man from Segovia.
The first anti-miscegenation law was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 1691, criminalizing interracial marriage. A belief in racial purity and white supremacy were among the reasons for such laws, with Abraham Lincoln stating in an 1858 speech, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people. I as much as any man am in favor of the superior position assigned to the white race." By the late 1800s, 38 U.S. states had laws banning interracial marriage. Before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the overwhelming majority of white evangelical Christians in the Southern United States saw racial segregation in marriage as something divinely instituted from God, and held that legal recognition of interracial couples would violate biblical teaching.
Interracial marriage in the United States has been fully legal in all U.S. states following the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States under Chief Justice Earl Warren in the case Loving v. Virginia, which ruled that race-based restrictions on marriages, such as the anti-miscegenation law in the state of Virginia, violated the Equal Protection Clause (adopted in 1868) of the United States Constitution.
Many states had opted to legalize interracial marriage prior to Loving v. Virginia. Interracial marriages increased from 2% of married couples in 1970 to 7% in 2000 and 8.4% in 2010. The number of interracial marriages as a proportion of new marriages has increased from 11% in 2010 to 19% in 2019.
According to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data conducted in 2013, 12% of newlyweds married someone of a different race. (This share does not take into account the "interethnic" marriages between Hispanics and non-Hispanics). And, most Americans say they approve of racial or ethnic intermarriage – not just in the abstract, but in their own families. About six-in-ten say it would be fine with them if a family member told them they were going to marry someone from any major race/ethnic groups other than their own.