Evolution of a Gray Love: Does Interracial Equal Post-Racial?

Berea College

Evolution of a Gray Love:

Does Interracial Equal Post-Racial?

Lauren Evoy

HIS 286

Dr. Dwayne Mack

December 9, 2013

As a nation with its first black President, the United States has been arguing over the same issue for nearly five years now: is America truly a post-racial society? Since President Barack Obama entered office in January of 2009, there has been a clear dividing line between opinions found on both ends of the spectrum, and a very small chance for a middle ground to survive in this argument. Individuals on one end preach that America has broken the barriers of race, being a color-blind society. This point is rebutted with the statistics and accounts of racial profiling, the disparities in education for racial minorities, and the story of the struggling African American, fighting to reach the same achievements as his white counterpart. Many Americans are under the assumption that because of the of the recent incline seen in interracial relationships within society, American citizens have become more open and accepting of different races and the mixing across racial lines.

According to census data in 2010, interracial relationships have made an eighteen percent leap in heterosexual couples from 2000 to 2010, and an even larger incline of twenty-one percent among same-sex couples (Jayson). While there is a significant increase of relationships among individuals who identify with a different race, there is also data showing that many of these couples are choosing not to finalize their unity with marriage. This is a puzzling twist in the story of interracial love; researchers cannot be certain why only four percent of multiethnic couples decide to marry, while nine percent make the decision to live together (Alpert). Marriage has been historically known to symbolize a mutual decision of legal and social unity; if these couples are deciding to decline marriage, researchers and citizens alike can easily interpret...