Diversity In Marriages In The United States

Name Tutor Course Date Diversity in Marriages Introduction Fifty years ago, the United States of America’s Supreme Court decriminalized marriage between people of different races in all states in a monumental decision that shaped the futures of numerous couples. Since then, there has been a steady rise in the number of interracial couples in the country. Pew Research Center estimates that one in every six newlywed couples are in an interracial marriage (Livingston and Brown). Statistics in 2015 showed that 17% of all newlywed couples in the United States were intermarried, a huge contrast to the 3% in 1967 shortly before the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court. However, research shows that the number of interracial marriages is influenced by numerous factors such as attitudes, migration patterns, availability of partners, and education which have in some ways have either inhibited or promoted diverse marriages (Chalabi). While the legal barrier against culturally diverse marriages has since been removed in almost all countries, couples continue to face various challenges, both from within and without the marriage. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to provide a detailed examination of the challenges faced by culturally diverse marriages in the United States. The findings show that some of the major issues facing intercultural couples were lack of societal acceptance, racial discrimination, cultural stereotyping, culture shock, and non-uniformity in child rearing practices. A lot more challenges have been documented in literature but these challengers stand out the most, especially in the United States. A detailed discussion of these challenges are presented to give a better understanding of the problem and stimulate the society to come up with suitable solutions. Challenges in Intercultural Marriages Intercultural marriages challenges are often accompanied by normal couple emotions such as depression, anger, guilt, insecurity, anxiety, and identity conflict. However, their cases are unique due to the greater potential of conflict emanating from the differences in cultural affiliations. By eliminating the common problems faced by all kinds of couples such as challenges arising from the couple’s adaptation to each other, we remain with a set of challenges stemming from societal pressure, racism, and cultural diversity (Sossah 106). Consequently, interracial couples seem to have more challenges to deal with thereby leading to them needing greater adjustment periods to their marriage. Sossah (106) explains that other reasons behind this could also include the overall attitude of the society towards such relationships. Long adjustment periods in marriages, on the surface, might not seem like a huge problem. However, it is important to note that this piles more pressure on the couple to try and meet societal expectations. It can, therefore, be classified as the bedrock for almost all the other challenges that come along in intercultural marriages. One of the major problems in interracial marriages, as earlier insinuated, is lack of acceptance from the society. Society attitudes towards interracial marriages range from curiosity to prejudice (Skowronski et al. 276). This, sometimes, results in a certain degree of marginalization (Lewis 20). The marginalization is felt more severely in primary group situations than in secondary group situations. Primary groups consist of people with close interactions such as family and friends. On the other hand, secondary groups consist of people with less personal interactions such as acquaintances. In some cases, social acceptance of intercultural marriages varies according to regions. For instance, black spouses are less accepted in the southern part of the United States and more accepted in the Eastern and Western regions (Lewis 20). Therefore, a couple’s chances of avoiding social acceptance challenges and the accompanying marginalization can be improved greatly by moving into regions where interracial marriages are more acceptable. Racial discrimination also forms part of the society’s attitudes towards intercultural marriages and hence also dictates the societal acceptance towards mixed unions. Given the current racial tensions in the United States, this has become a very sensitive issue. It is an undeniable fact, as shown by the earlier stated statistics, that the tolerance of such unions has risen over the past years. However, racial discrimination still remains prevalent and “it is a stressor to an intercultural relationship as it impacts the number of negative spousal interactions...