The racial attitudes of whites towards interracial relationships

The purpose of this research is to identify attitudes of the white people regarding interracial relationships. There have been controversial thoughts and opinions regarding interracial relationships, some of which have been positive, some negative and then there have been those who could not opinionate their thoughts and understanding. This survey analyzes the attitudes of the whites in the United States. It questions social responses, culture, social status, religion, age, ethnicity, and how they affect interracial relationships. The research will be conducted through the use of the interaction analysis, qualitative and quantitative data from West Chester University. The goal of this research is to identify demographics of whites towards interracial relationships and to increase knowledge regarding interracial relationships and marriages in the United States. 

Since the ancient times, there has always been a controversy in interracial relationships between the whites and people of color, especially the blacks and Hispanics. This mainly arose from the colonial times where the whites maintained their superiority while enslaving the blacks. Today, residential neighborhoods and social networks are more integrated than the ancient times (Killian, 2013), opening up the human culture to love beyond skin color. Killian describes the social prejudices as gender, ethnicity, culture, religion or social class; as the world heals from segregation from these social axes, it is as well embracing the changes that come along, for instance, interracial relationships and marriages. This research will explore characteristics of the American population supportive or less supportive of interracial relationships. “Religious affiliation had some influence on attitudes toward an interracial marriage of close relatives among Whites and Blacks” (Djamba & Kimuna, 2014). Most of the individuals in America are okay with interracial relationships at face value, but when their family members get involved, the feedback is different. This survey seeks to outline the truth about this. Learning more about the perceptions white people have for dating people with color enables everyone to define the human culture of co-existence in this century. This research will as well advance cultural communication since people interpret what they are sensing, feeling and thinking differently (Killian, 2013). 

This research is going to extensively cover and unveil personal attitudes and social contact, for instance, thoughts from partners in these relationships, their thoughts from their family members, friends and colleagues regarding the relationships. It will be a platform to give voice to the young generation in interracial relationships and those not in any. The survey will air opinions, social stereotypes and attitudes of those not in interracial relationships and help determine future occurrences. It will as well factor in the laws against discrimination since 1967 and in the society today. This will explain the behavioral differences of individuals in interracial relations over the others while identifying the attitudes. In their book, “Interracial Families,” Vancey and Lewis explain the changes in the behavior of individuals in interracial relationships; these relationships affect behavior since people involved need to learn about other races. Whites rarely segregate their colored partners, since they have found love and romance in them and because they have not experienced any racial discrimination; in essence, the racial attitude of whites partners changes especially from seeing how their romantic partners experienced racism, heard discrimination from them and therefore experience a change in their racial status (Vancey & Lewis, 2008). The survey will be looking to confirm this analysis as well. Are you tolerant of interracial relationships? 

What are the Racial Attitudes of Whites towards Interracial Relationships? 

Literature Review 

Over the last couple of years, the whites amongst members of the American society have gradually bending tending towards the acceptability of the reality that interracial friendship, dating, and marriage relationships are taking place in different places across the globe. Such a shift in the opinion held by the whites has been motivated by a change in attitude among the general population of white people across the globe as well as the understanding that previous successive generations have continued to express more liberal views regarding interracial relationships. According to Perry (2013), the millennial are not exempted from the particular attitude held by the general population of the whites where the majority of them are in the range of between eighteen and twenty-nine years of age. In the recent past, various regions around the world have witnessed growing concerns about some of the negative racial attitudes that the whites have been expressing against the idea of interracial relationships (Lienemann & Stopp, 2013). 

Previous studies have established that an overwhelming number of young people across the globe would not have problems embracing the aspect of interracial relationships regardless of races involved (Lienemann & Stopp, 2013). The present state of the racial attitudes of the white towards interracial relationships is an outcome that has been characterized by a gradual shift in the opinion and views that have been held by members of the American public over time. Today, about ninety percent of the young white people agree that people should be at liberty to love, date, and marry people of their choices without any restrictions irrespective of the racial backgrounds of their suitors or spouses (Field, Kimuna & Straus, 2013). 

Observations by Perry and Whitehead (2015) have revealed that the current generation of the whites living in most contemporary societies around the world has a higher likelihood of having intimate relationships and association with people of a different race compared to those of the older generation. White Americans aged fifty years and older are believed to be preoccupied with a racial attitude that significantly lowers their likelihood of closely relating to and marrying a person from a different race. The analysis by Samuel (2013) has previously established that the approval of marriages between the whites and the blacks has always been considerably influenced by the racial attitudes that have often been held about interracial relationships by the whites. In the year 2011, the approval rate of interracial marriages, especially those between the whites and the blacks, significantly went up as compared to the one witnessed in the previous years. In that respect, the approval rating of the whites when it comes to relationships and marriages between the whites and the blacks reached 84 percent, which still lowered that of the black,’s at 96 percent. Such a significant change was substantially attributable to various factors that influenced the change of attitudes among the whites. 

For decades now, there has been a consistently higher rate of approval by the blacks of the interracial relations compared to that of the whites. However, the gap of interracial relationship approval between these two races has been considerably narrowing over the last few years owing to a higher rate of civilization across many parts of the world. To that extent, Kaba (2011) indicates that the effects of racial attitudes of whites towards interracial relationships and marriages cannot be downplayed despite the changes that have continuously been witnessed in the recent past in relation increase in approval ratings. This is because there is still a substantial amount of evidence that points to the continued movement of racial attitude among different races in a parallel direction since around late 1960’s, when the estimates of different racial opinions began to be reliably collected and recorded (Samuel, 2013). 

Although we have come, a long way in history interracial relationships will always be viewed as controversial. The current literature on attitudes toward interracial relationships have not been able to separate global and personal attitudes. Much of what we know about interracial dating, association and marriage is based on a person behavior rather than their personal attitudes. The purpose of this literature review is to see if there is a correlation with race, ethnicity and an individual’s attitudes towards interracial friendships and romantic relationships. 

Many of the previous studies focused on interracial marriages rather than dating couples, as marriages are seen as a more permanent and intimate step in a relationship (Gullickson 2006). By limiting the studies to marriages, many relationships are being overlooked. After the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court Decision Loving v. Virginia, which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in 16 states, interracial marriages did indeed increase but with increasing contact opportunities in integrated settings such as college campuses, students have higher likelihoods of engaging in relationship-building interactions. Yancey and Yancey (1998) suggested that the “availability” of individuals for friendship was perhaps the most probable reason for interracial relationships. 

The proportions of interracial friendships in the United States are increasing amongst both children and adults. This trend is most pronounced for Caucasian-Americans. The reported data from a massive longitudinal survey of American youth collected annually from 1976 to 1995. (Tuch, Sigelman, and MacDonald 1999). The percentage of African-Americans with all or almost all same-race friends is lower than for Caucasians, which reflects findings described throughout this bibliography. African-Americans appeared to have an increase in cross-race friendships during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but this trend reversed in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, the percentage of African-Americans with all or almost all same-race friends were equivalent to the percentage in the mid-1970s. (Rimoldi and Terzera 1996). Caucasian high school students' interracial friendliness appears to have increased, as the percentage of Caucasians with all or almost all same-race friends had a steady decline over the last quarter of the 20th century. However, even though the percentage of Caucasians with interracial friendships increased over the study period, they still exhibit less interracial friendliness (defined by sheer number of interracial friends) than the African-American respondents by the mid-1990s. 

Social contact 

Social contact is an important factor that shapes personal attitudes towards interracial relationships. Researchers of interracial contact agree that close equal-status contact, such as between friends, influences attitudes, behavior, and policy views about race but disagree about whether other types of exposure dissolve social distance (Emerson, Kimbro and Yancey 2002; Lee, Farrell and Link 2004). Negative social attitudes towards interracial relationships can create barriers to interracial relationship formation. For example, lacking support from family and peers could negatively affect the satisfaction of being in a relationship or friendship with the other race. Whites’ attitudes towards interracial friendships are much more accepting than to dating and marriage. Blacks were more accepting of interracial romantic relationships than whites were but both groups reported their families felt negatively towards interracial friendships and romantic relationships (Mills, Daly, Longmore, & Kilbride, 1995, 129, 349-351). Overall, minorities appear to be more accepting of interracial relationships than whites are. This comes from a larger proportion of minorities involved in interracial relationships than whites (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), as well as many studies reporting more accepting attitudes towards interracial contact among minorities (Gaines, & Leaver, 2002; Baldwin, Day, & Hecht, 2000; Pinkney, 1993). A few studies have explored factors that positively affected interracial relationships (Yodanis 2012), but the ones that were conducted involved person social settings such as residential neighborhoods, workplaces, and educational institutions. These social settings have presented opportunities for individuals to meet those of different groups. 

Sigelman and Welch found that living in areas where frequent contact with Blacks was common provided Whites with positive information about Blacks and residential studies illustrate that Whites living in integrated housing projects developed favorable attitudes toward Blacks at a faster rate than Whites who lived in segregated housing projects. Educational institutions are also highly related to a greater tolerance of other racial groups and it creates a smaller social distance and positive attitudes. Students and or faculty are able to associate themselves with people outside their social structure. Lastly, the workplace also gives people the opportunity to create new interracial relationships even though much of the contact between groups in the workplace is hierarchical. 

Racial Stereotypes 

The racial stereotypes against the African Americans elicit negative portrays towards them. According to Apfelbaum, Norton and Sommers (2012) it is commonly believed that interracial relationships are more problematic as opposed to interracial relationships. Interracial relationships have been denounced for many years because of the cultural differences, which is believed to be a major source of the problem. The rate of divorce cases is much higher in interracial marriages compared to interracial marriages and this aspect contributes to the belief that interracial relationships are certainly likely to fail. The whites are against White-Black unions and thus endorse negative racial stereotypes towards Blacks. People have a tendency of believing that interracial relationships have less stability, which would cause problems on children born from these relationships. 

Support from the Social Group 

The survey by Field, Kimuna and Straus (2013) indicated that people tend to avoid interracial relationships because of factors such as being disowned by family and friends, negative reactions from the public, and the fear of limiting their career or losing their jobs. Lack of support from friends and family have a profound impact on relationships. Having little or no support from peers and family have a negative impact on the satisfaction of a person being in relationship and the commitment of a couple. Several studies have found that interracial couples had fewer support groups causing them to feel less satisfied in their relationships compared to same-race marriages. Criticism from peers is very damaging especially in the teenage years. The study reveal that teenagers who were in an interracial relationship are more likely to experience problems with their peers in school. The findings show that there are differences in the level of troubles experienced in racial groups in interracial relationships, which was high among the blacks compared to other racial groups such as Asians and Hispanics. The stigmatization causes individuals in interracial relationships to fail to express themselves and be in the type of relationship that they chose. This factor influences the tendency of an individual to enter into an interracial relationship ( Pierce, 2014). Therefore, the negative responses impacts on the lives of the couples who are in an interracial relationship, forcing them to divorce or breakup and moving back to their communities. 

The findings reveal that generally, biracial adults who are both black and white assert that they more in common with the black people than the whites. They feel that they are more accepted by black relatives as opposed to their white relatives in the course of their lives (Field, Kimuna & Straus, 2013). Therefore, the biracial adults tend to have stronger ties with their black relatives than their white counterparts. 

Media Exposure 

According to Lienemann and Stopp (2013), portrayals of mass media of interracial relationships could foster positive attitudes towards such relationships. The increased contact between black-white interracial relationships through the media is linked with more positive attitudes towards Blacks and interracial relationships. These relationships are facilitated by the extent to which blacks are included in self-representations in the media. The presence of Blacks watching Black-White couples in the media has been correlated with the acceptance of an individual of the interracial relationships. However, the study findings indicated that some pre-existing attitudes could have an impact on the way a person interprets the media portrayals of social media. For example, if an individual had negative attitudes regarding interracial relationships already, they would perceive the portrayals in a negative light. On the other hand, if a person has a negative outlook or bad experiences on the interracial relationships could perceive the same portrayals in a negative way. The media exposure of the interracial relationships has improved the attitudes of the people towards interracial relationships. 

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