By Alice Robinson
Daily Staff Reporter
More and more Americans are choosing to marry outside of their race, according to the results of a new study headed by University sociology Prof. Reynolds Farley.
Farley, also a research scientist with the Population Studies Center, examined U.S. Census data from as far back as the 1980s to find who is marrying whom and how different factors such as geography, education and military experience relate to people's choice of marriage partners.
"I think we're experiencing a lot of racial change in the United States," Farley said. "It's important to document what is happening and to some degree why it's happening."
According to the study, American Indians, Latinos/as and Asian Americans are more likely than blacks and whites to marry outside of their race. But the statistics also are divided along gender lines in some cases.
In the Asian American community, the study found that women are more likely to marry partners of a different race than men. In the black community, men married out of their race more frequently than women.
"Just under 10 percent of the black men who married in the 1980s or 1990s married white women, compared to less than two percent of black men who married in the 1940s or 1950s," Farley said in a written statement.
One student said the reason for increased interracial marriages may be a shift in general attitudes. "Maybe the times are changing and people are being more relaxed," said Holly, a senior in the School of Education who requested anonymity. She said stereotypes that interracial marriage is "awful and that it shouldn't be done" no longer exist.
Farley said the results of the study were not exactly as he had predicted. "I was surprised at the increase over time in the proportion of people who marry outside of their own race," he said.
Residents of California and Hawaii were more likely to marry out of their race than people who reside in the South or Midwest, the study reported. Those who have served in the military were also more likely to choose partners of a different race.
Engineering junior Tricia Allam, who is currently in an interracial relationship, said young people seem to be more open to the idea of interracial couples than older generations. "Most of the negative reactions we've gotten have been from older people, like age 60 and over," she said.
Allam said most young adults "don't even think twice" about interracial dating.
Farley plans to share his findings with members of the Population Association of America at their annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.