Interracial Marriages in United States Climb to 4.8 Million
By: Melissa Stern
Updated: March 22, 2012
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After meeting with two interracial couples, they say they don't really face any unique challenges and that it is very rare to have any negative reactions.
They say that due to the Internet and the easy access to travel these days, most people are more open minded.
"My mom was a little bit, not very excited about it at first, but I think it's grown on her a little bit," says Melissa Nunez, from Missouri, who has been married to Darwin Nunez, from Honduras, for almost five years now.
They say most people are pretty accepting of their marriage.
"They seem to be more open to, not always, but a lot of times different cultures and getting to know people for their personality and character instead of just judging someone from the way they look or their background."
She says in most cases, people don't find it to be that unusual.
"If people thought negative things they usually keep to themselves about it, we have had encounters in public where a few people will give us certain stares."
And coming from different backgrounds keeps things interesting.
"It's not so much challenging to have different cultures, but it's more exciting."
Dr. Judith Gonzalez, a licensed psychologist, says interracial marriage is becoming more acceptable.
"We don't have borders -- even though we have physical geographical borders, but the reality is that it's easier than ever to move to different cultures."
She says due to the Internet and the fact that there are more people from different backgrounds in this country than in the past, "we are becoming a global society." She says the older generation is more traditional when it comes to marriage, "usually parents prefer that their children marry people who are similar to themselves."
But it wasn't a problem for Brande and Edward Leopoldo. Their family was accepting, but it takes outsiders a little longer to warm up, "usually it's my last name -- when they hear my last name they say oh, sounds Italian, or is that Spanish? And I say no it's philippino actually."
Brande says sometimes communication can be tough.
"He speaks his language with his family and friends, and i can't understand what's going on."
But in general, they disagree on things like any couple would, "we struggle on what we're going to have for dinner, which is not that big of a deal."
Dr. Gonzalez says although it's becoming more commonplace, multi-ethnic couples experience even more stress than a couple who was raised similarly.
"They have different values, many times they speak a different language, they have communication issues they have to address, also not only cultural values but also belief systems that are culturally different."
And unfortunately there is still one big problem: "our society tends to discriminate."
She says although we've come a long way and multi-cultural couples are becoming less uncommon, "its better now," she says we still have a long way to go, "its better now even thought there's a lot of things we can do to do better."
