A record 1 in 12, or 4.8 million, marriages in the United States are interracial. A consistent flow of Asian and Hispanic immigrants increase the options of prospective spouses and blacks are now highly likely to marry whites than before. Released on Thursday, a Pew Research Center study detailed how mixed-race children from interracial unions are challenging the typical notions of race in America. In 1980, 3.2 percent of marriages were interracial and the study found that 8.4 percent of all current U.S. marriages are interracial. The Supreme Court banned race-based restrictions on marriage in 1967 and Alabama became the last state to lift its ban on interracial marriages in 2000.
Multiracial Americans make up about 9 million, or 8 percent, of the minority population and the numbers are growing fast. Daniel Lichter, a sociology professor at Cornell University said, “The rise in interracial marriage indicates that race relations have improved over the past quarter century. Mixed-race children have blurred America’s color line. They often interact with others on either side of the racial divide and frequently serve as brokers between friends and family members of different racial backgrounds. But America still has a long way to go.”
