Cross-Cultural Marriages

In 2010, the U.S. Pew Research Center conducted a research according to which 15% of newly married couples were interracial. Also, the overall percentage of cross-cultural marriages was eight percent, which is a significant growth comparing to four percent in 1986. This growth tendency does contribute to the issue of racial tolerance. Also, racial tolerance is strengthened by family related reasons, age and mass media.

Family Bonds Influences Racial Tolerance

As it was already stated, family related reasons as like family bonds make a great contribution into cross-cultural tolerance. 35% of the Americans state that there is a person within their families who is wedded to a representative of other race. According to the 2010 findings by the Pew Research Center, 33% of respondents stated that they could easily accept the situation if one of the family members will get married to a representative of other ethnic groups or races. Moreover, people who had a negative attitude towards intermarriages changed their mind after they realized that they don’t want to cut off relationship with their close relatives or a friend who has entered into one of those marriages.

Millennials Are More Tolerant To Cross-Cultural Marriages

Age is another important factor in accepting interracial relationships. For instance, Millennials—defined by Pew Research Center as people of age from 18 to 29—are more tolerant and ready to accept cross-cultural marriages than those over 65. Moreover, according to the findings of the research center, a great number of Whites, African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans will be able to accept that their relative marries a representative of other ethnicity or race.

The Pew Research Center study also reported that 93% of responders would be okay if their family member is going to marry an Asian-American, a white American (92%), a Hispanic-American (91%) and an African-American (88%). Percentage of people accepting a marriage to any other group was 85%. By the way, Millennials now are the most numbered population by age in the US. By getting the point of 75.4 million, they managed to outnumber the Baby Boomers (people from 51 to 59 years of age) whose number comprises about 74.9 million. Regarding the above tendency indicated, more interracial relationships should be expected in the future.

Mass Media and its Influence on Tolerance

People are bombarded with the images of famous people and their relationships, which are often cross-cultural. This is alike an advertisement. The more viewers see famous people being married to a person of another race or ethnic group the more they accept interracial marriages.

As can be seen, intermarriages foster tolerance. The number of cross-cultural marriages has grown enormously comparing to the 1980s. According to the analytics made by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 30 years, the number of the non-whites is going to outnumber the number of the whites. So, to avoid any conflicts, it’s good for America to encourage cross-cultural marriages in order to establish harmony and to overcome the challenges of people’s differences.