Mixed Marriages Growing U.S. Trend
More Americans than ever are dating and mating with people of different races, sparking a mixed-race baby boomlet that is changing the way we think about race in the United States.
In a new national survey, more than half of all Americans said they’d date a person of another race if they were single, and nearly as many said they would be willing to marry someone of a different race.
The poll also suggests that resistance to mixed-race marriage is crumbling, particularly among younger Americans. Just one out of three persons older than 50 said they would marry a person of another race, compared to two out of three persons younger than 35 years old. Overall, men and blacks were more open to marrying someone of another race than were women or whites.
Other studies suggest that it’s not just attitudes that are changing. There were 1.2 million interracial couples in 1992, and the number of black-white marriages quadrupled in the past two decades.
Likewise, the number of children with a black and a white parent grew 161 percent between 1978 and 1992, while births to Asian and white parents doubled, according to the National Center for health statistics.
In fact, mixed-race America has emerged as one of the hottest new topics in the social sciences. Last month’s annual meeting of the American Sociological Association featured several panels on mixed-race marriages and births. And the federal government is seriously considering adding a mixed-race category to the 2000 U.S. Census.
How workaholics spent their summer vacation
Nearly six out of every 10 working Americans took a vacation this summer, reports a new national survey conducted by Bruskin Goldring Research. But one out of four reported that they didn’t leave the office, factory or shop entirely behind; they worked while on holiday. Most reported that they caught up on work-related reading, while others caught up on paperwork or responded to emergencies on the work front.
And while many said they toiled out of a sense of duty and dedication, 12 percent of these workaholics acknowledged they had to work to keep their jobs.
Richard Morin’s Unconventional Wisdom appears Sundays as a regular feature of the IN Life People page.
xxxx Whom would we marry? Percentage of Americans who have dated or would marry a person of another race: Race, gender Have dated Would marry White men 57% 54% White women 42% 36% Black men 81% 67% Black women 51% 50%
Whom wouldn’t we marry? Percentage of each group who say they would not marry a person of this race or ethnic background: White men Black women 47% Asian women 39% Hispanic women 36%
White women Black men 60% Asian men 57% Hispanic men 53%
Black men Hispanic women 34% Asian women 31% White women 26%
Black women Asian men 49% White men 46% Hispanic men 40%