Interracial America

INTERRACIAL AMERICA

In a melting pot country like the United States, where immigration and emigration rates are high, inter-cultural marriage has become an inevitable by- product of mobility. Interracial marriage refers to a marriage which consists of couples with two different racial backgrounds. For example, a Chinese woman married to an American. While the intermarried couples have to adapt their racial differences, their cultural background would assert a significant influence on the development of their offspring. In addition, society has also held different views on them. Children raised in a interracial family are often believed to encounter problems like a feelings of alienation, a sense of low-esteem, loss of self- identity, culture and tradition, which may cause personality disorders and affect the child's social behaviors. However, there are also positive assumptions about biracial children like better language ability and higher adaptability to the society.

Biracial children have existed in the United States since colonial times. America's first child of dual African and European heritage was reportedly born in 1620. Despite the long history biracial children have in the U.S., opponents to interracial unions insist on invoking the "tragic mulatto" myth to justify their views. This myth suggests that biracial children will inevitably grow into tortured misfits angry that they fit into neither black nor white society. While mixed-race children certainly face challenges, raising well-adjusted biracial children is possible if parents are proactive and sensitive to their children's needs. Certainly biracial children have a lot of issues while fitting on the society no because of the discrimination but their own self adjustment problems.

Research indicates that mixed- union's kids are allowed to embrace all components of their heritage. Unfortunately, society often pressures mixed-race individuals to choose just one race because of the outdated "one-drop rule" which mandated that Americans with any African heritage be classified as black. It was not until 2000 that the U.S. Census Bureau allowed citizens to identify as more than one race. That year the Census found that about 4% of children in the U.S. are multiracial.

How mixed children racially identify depends on a number of factors, including physical features and family attachments.