On a personal note, I can’t tell you how often people have made some very strange and very inappropriate comments around me not realizing that I am, in fact, a biracial individual. It is not water under the bridge and watching these weirdo reaction to Cheerios ads and I think the other one was life insurance, maybe, just reminds me how not past this we are.
In addition, I have a very vivid and strong memory about my uncle telling me he thought that my mother bringing me into this world was actually an act of cruelty.He thought we girls would be tormented for what way we looked. I think he meant it as a positive comment to kind of suggesting that me living through childhood in one piece was a surprise or something.
I remember my reaction to it almost as vividly as I remember hearing him say it, and that was thinking what do uncles tell their nieces when they’re not biracial?
It is sobering. I don’t think I knew that, although I never really studied WWII in depth beyond high school or events/movies, whatever that drew me to it.
It did make me look up South Africa though… and apparently they too had anti-interracial laws but not until after WWII.
Had no idea why it came up but heard that NPR movies essay today on the radio and thought it was excellent. I just about made a thread for it in the movies forum:
I was going to say how can they not include Corrina, Corrina, which I just adored as a teen and then I realize the critics didn’t like it which … and then I was like well what about Save the Last Dance or Something New which wasn’t well received either, which makes me sad.
Maybe the critics only like the idea of interracial couples but don’t actually like them unless they’re something way out there, not modern like the King and I.
In the United States, there have been no nationwide anti-miscegenation laws. However, there were state laws in individual states, particularly in the Southern States and the Plains States, that prohibited miscegenation.
That is crazy. My brother is in a mixed marriage, and I haven’t really thought about the extra stress they have in their relationship simple because how a few might view their relationship.
Sorry, I probably came off harsher than I should have. I just think too many people believe the racist problems and the resistance, which is still very strong actually, against interracial couples is all seeded in the south when it’s very strong here and other places. Those areas just held out longer. It’s not unheard of for someone to support interracial couples and love the idea of mixed marriages… but not for their family. It’s the weirdest thing to encounter that.
Anyway, 50 years isn’t that long ago, by any stretch of the imagination. I suspect if the South wasn’t there’d still be a few states fighting that battle today myself.
Our history of white supremacy, which is on the rise again, is disheartening but there is still hope for our courts:
The court concluded that anti-miscegenation laws were racist and had been enacted to perpetuate white supremacy:
There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification. The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving white persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy.
Back then they recognized it for what it was… you’d hope the same would happen today.
I almost celebrated my own parentage when I initially saw this thread, only to learn that [the Wikipedia article about] anti-miscegenation laws say basically nothing about Hispanics marrying whites. . . awww. Thought my dad mighta been progressive at one point :(
Commence with celebrating. That landmark case opened the door for everyone. My parents were not, shall we say, married, hah, but then again most the people around me have divorced parents so there’s that.
I don’t really find that too be too outlandish. At the risk of drawing some false equivalences, there are all sorts of things that I wholeheartedly support for the nation but would be against in my family unit, at least in the abstract:
Abortion
Gun Ownership
Legal Use of Marijuana
Cat Ownership
Assisted Suicide
And I’m not sure that taking pride in your own ethnicity and wanting your kids to continue to marry “in the tribe” is the same as being against “mixing the races” overall… especially if it’s only in the abstract. Is it “racism” to have a preference that your, say, Italian-American kids marry another Italian-American? I guess that is “racist” by definition… but that fails to reach my personal threshold for outrage.
Putting it another way:
“It would be nice if my grandkids kept our family’s blue eyes.” – Barely racist at all.
“When you grow up, I hope you marry a good [WHATEVER] boy.” – A little racist.
“When you grow up, I don’t want you marrying a [WHATEVER].” – Racist.
"Stop dating Jim; I know you love him but I can’t stand seeing you with a [WHATEVER]. – Really damned racist.
Then there is a difference between approving of something and not wanting your kids to bear the burden of that something. When I see an interracial couple, my first thought is generally one of admiration – this is a couple who is surely experiencing nasty looks, half-muttered comments and whatnot, yet their affection/love for one another is strong enough that they choose to persevere even though their lives would be easier otherwise. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a parent to hope that their kid doesn’t have to go through that hardship.
