Interracial Marriage and Human Rights

Over the past few decades huge strides have been made in the acceptance of interracial relationships. Only a few generations in the past, interracial relationships were not only taboo, but illegal. Even though the idea of legalizing love has, and always will be a hot debate issue, there is no telling if that kind of debate will ever fully end. The only thing that is undeniable is that with each growing day, each year and each generation the acceptance of these issues on love are evolving in the right direction. A perfect example of this in the 60s and 70s was race relations and today it is seen in gay marriage. 

The comparison between interracial relationships and gay relationships is similar in the aspect that they are both kinds of love, desires that are uncontrolled, but that some people in the world have a problem with for no real reason. The struggles faced by participants of both groups are affected equally by stereotypes, unaimed hatred, and needless bigotry. The main difference in the two is that while interracial relationships have been reaching a wider acceptance there was no real revolution, no public spectacle made on the behalf of interracial relationships. This is quite the opposite with gay marriage. With the world of social media and internet connectedness we live in today the issue of gay marriage has not only become a huge topic in the world of politics and the realm of lawmaking, but it has had far reaching effects on the people who are too young to vote, or not inspired to be changed by lawmaking. The depths of the exposure of gay marriage has reached a level where it is something everyone can talk about in public one way or another.

With interracial relationships there was never this big “Ah ha” moment. The public never sought out any large opinion on the matter. For this reason, the idea of the acceptance of interracial relationships has been swept under the proverbial rug and never really shown to the public and held on the pedestal of modern media to be something that is endorsed or made popular by the public. In many ways it is the human rights, or social issue that was left behind. 

The fact that interracial relationships have reached the level of acceptance that they have today given the struggles they've faced and considering how far they have come in just the past few years is shocking. From segregated schools and cities only forty years ago, and a war over enslaving one race only a couple hundred years ago the idea that a black man and white woman, or an asian man and black woman can walk down the street hand in hand is a beautiful sight.

By Mark