This couple consists of a black man
and a white woman. They gave birth to twins. The uniqueness of the twins is
that one was black and the other was white. The couple face discrimination and are often asked questions like; Are they
related, are you babysitting, are you sure they have the same father, and some
even call the children mutts. It appears that discrimination is very loud in their
lives today.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
In 20011 a church in Pike County Kentucky voted and made
their opinion clear. They do not want interracial married couples as members of
their church. They commented that they are trying to promote more unity in the community
and the church.
Stella Harville, pictured above, is in a relationship with Ticha Chikuni, also above. She was baptized
in the church and attended many services as she grew up there. Ticha works for
Georgetown College and is a native of Zimbabwe. They were able to perform and
sing once in a church service. After that church service the pastor told Stella’s
father that they could not sing at the church anymore. The pastor left due to
health issues. The new pastor said they could sing at the church again. Then
later the church voted and took a stance on the issue. They said that they do
not condone interracial marriages. Interracial married people could not become
members in the church and would not be used for worship services or any other
church functions.
This is just one example of the
unjust discrimination happening here in the United States. Stella is pursuing
her master’s degree in optical engineering and I hope Stella and Ticha have success
and are not jaded by the discrimination taking place in Kentucky today.
(2011). Pike church
takes stand against interracial marriage. Retrieved March 23, 2013, from
http//:kentucky.com
Monday, March 18, 2013
Interracial marriage is
defined as a marriage that occurs between two people of different races. An
example would be a black woman marrying a white man or a Japanese woman
marrying a black man. The history of the United States on this subject is very
lengthy. There were laws prohibiting interracial marriages as far back as the
1600’s. The laws were enacted to maintain the purity of the races. Many people
believe it was really to maintain the purity of the white races not the purity
of the minority races. In 1967 the Supreme Court of
the United States (Loving v. Virginia) declared anti-miscegenation
laws unconstitutional(Interracial Marriage, 2003). Even though the laws have changed the legality
of interracial marriage the societal pressures and discrimination have still
kept increases of interracial marriages to a minimum.
The
US Census bureau has reported the following statistics on interracial marriages
in 1960 there were 149,000. The increase went to 651,000 in 1980. Then 1990
there were 1,348,000 interracial marriages. In 2000 there were more than 3
million interracial marriages. In the 2010 census interracial marriages made up
6-7% of the total marriages. The increase is found to be due to a decrease in
societal prejudice and the change of the census forms where they now require
you to fill out all segments of your racial composition. In any case societal
pressure has decreased. Many large cities have less prejudice than the small
rural areas.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
March 17
My topic is interracial marriage and couples
discrimination in the United States. I
am from a rural area in Pennsylvania where there is limited interracial
marriages. My first thought was that I would research individuals and share
their stories of discrimination. I then thought that I need another avenue for
research too. I did a search on CNN website for this particular topic of
discrimination. To my surprise, I found that as recently as November of 2009 we
have documented and proven incidents of interracial marriage discrimination in our
justice system.
In
November of 2009 a Louisiana Justice of the peace was pressured to resign for refusing
to marry interracial couples. In October
of 2009 he refused to marry Beth Humphrey, 30, and her boyfriend Terence McKay,
32. Keith Bardwell was the justice of
the peace. He told the couple that they do not do interracial weddings. On October 20th the couple filed a
federal discrimination lawsuit claiming he violated the Equal Protection Clause
of the 14th Amendment. After resigning
Bardwell said that he wouldn’t apologize for what he had done. He had been
refusing to marry interracial couples for years. He truly believed that he was
doing the right thing. It amazes me that as recent as 2009 that there are people
in the justice system that feel this way.
Alabama
was the last state to have a law on its books which banned interracial
marriages. In 1999 a bill was passed to repeal the law from its books. The state
stopped enforcing the law decades ago, but the fact is that the law was never
removed. As state representative Alvin Holmes said, “These kinds of things
represent oppression and slavery and discrimination against black people”. We
are not talking about a time frame of the 1950’s and 60’s here. This is very
recent and truly shows how much more we need to improve things in the United
States.
In
2004 Craig Holcomb the associate head coach for Iona College basketball was
fired. He opened a lawsuit claiming that he was fired for his association with
a person of another race. He was married to a black woman named Pamela
Gauthier. When Craig asked one of the college officers if they had received his
wedding invitation, he responded with,” are you really going to marry that Aunt
Jemima?”. I did not find the end results to the lawsuit brought on my Holcomb,
but the remark made to him regarding his wedding invitation was completely racist.
This type of comment is absurd coming from a person that is representing a
college.
I
have found a couple of people that have agreed to share their personal experiences
with interracial marriage discriminations. I hope they shed some light on the
topic so we can all look at how our society needs to improve.
(2008, April
1). Court: Man Who Says College Fired Him Over Interracial Marriage Can Sue.
Retrieved March 17, 2013, from http://.foxnews.com
(1999, March
12). Alabama considers lifting interracial ban. Retrieved March 17, 2013, from http://.cnn.com
(2009, November 3). Louisiana
justice who refused interracial marriage resigns. Retrieved March 17, 2013, from http://.cnn.com
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