In my first blog I discussed how my interests pertained to me wanting to become an elementary school teacher. But I actually plan to do my research on interracial dating and marriage. My main research question is: What are the prejudices that people have against interracial dating/ marriage? I want to research how long, generally, these prejudices have been going on and where they originated from. The answer to that is probably really complicated and starts from the beginning of time, but I am going to limit my time frame to the 1960s and the Civil Rights movement to the present.
Historically, interracial relationships have been frowned upon and even outlawed in some states. But that has not stopped these relationships in the past, and it is becoming more common today. Some important historical figures of our past are mixed, including Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois. Also, during times of slavery, people had interracial relationships, usually kept secret, but there was also rape. War also creates that opportunity for mixing, and I’m not saying that is necessarily a good thing. I think the acceptance of interracial relationships also differs from region to region, north, south, east, and west.
We watched a video in my AMST class on Asian American Studies about this woman, Renee Tajima Pena, who traveled the country studying Asian America. She came across the topic of interracial relationships and asked several people what they thought of it. The answers were generally the same. One man, Victor Wong, had a strict father who believed heavily in tradition and the Asian culture. So when Wong married a black woman, his father was furious, her parents were too. They had no support or approval, but they still married. The Burtanog sisters from New Orleans were similar. They listed the ranking of what races were acceptable to marry. White was at the top every time and black was at the bottom, every time, Asian was usually near the top and Mexican was also forbidden.
I have a bunch of other questions as starting points too. I already know from previous research that much of interracial relationships are affected mainly by family. Although in the past, these relationships were mostly frowned upon by society, family and traditions have a big impact on the decision to date outside their race. I think it has to do with pleasing parents or rebelling against them. Also, religion comes into play as well. More recently, I feel like the approval of interracial relationships is generational and has to do with how assimilated people are into American culture. Now I know that is confusing too since we do not really know how to define American culture, but I think that the more open people are to accept others (race, religion, traditions, etc.), the more they can accept interracial relationships.
So in conclusion to this blog, I want to look into the history of interracial relationships, regional differences, and generational opinions on it.
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