THE PEW Research Center reports:

A record 14.6% of all new marriages in the United States in 2008 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another. This includes marriages between a Hispanic and non-Hispanic (Hispanics are an ethnic group, not a race) as well as marriages between spouses of different races — be they white, black, Asian, American Indian or those who identify as being of multiple races or “some other” race.

                                      — Comments —

Kilroy writes:

I wonder what the gender breakdown of these statistics is. I speculate that there will be a greater number of white men marrying non-white women. I say this because I find white women to be the most infected with radical autonomy and feminist theory, i.e. least desirable as mates for red-blooded men.

Laura writes:

Your hunch is incorrect.  The report states:

Among whites and Hispanics, by contrast, there are no gender differences in intermarriage rates. About 9% of both male and female white newlyweds in 2008 married a nonwhite spouse, and about a quarter of both male and female Hispanic newlyweds in 2008 married someone who is not Hispanic.

Black males and Asian females do have a much higher rate of interracial marriage than those of the opposite sex.

Jesse Powell writes:

I’d like to offer some speculation as to why it would be that black men have higher interracial marriage rates than black women and why Asian women have higher interracial marriage rates than Asian men. Both phenomenons could be explained by ambitious comparatively high status men seeking a higher status woman in the racial dimension.

In terms of social functioning, how well each race does in successful family formation, blacks are at the bottom of the social hierarchy and Asians are at the top, above whites. In 2008 the out-of-wedlock ratio among non-Hispanic whites was 28.6% but for Asians it was 16.9%. Also, I know Asians have significantly higher educational attainment levels than whites do.

So, black men have a motivation to seek romantic partners outside of their race because any race other than black will have a higher family functioning level than blacks do. All men, including white men, will have a motivation to pursue Asian women because the Asian race has a higher family functioning level than all the other races, including the white race.

Since men are the initiators and pursuers in romantic relationships a black man is more likely to be with a non-black woman because he will pursue non-black women. An Asian woman will find a large number of non-Asian men pursuing her and will therefore be more likely to be won over by a man who is not Asian.

Laura writes:

It’s possible to speculate that status-seeking is involved in the choice of white spouses for black men and at the same time say that status is not the sum of these relationships. Just as men are drawn to beautiful women partly for the status they confer, and women to rich men, this does not mean there is nothing more than social climbing behind these relationships and marriages.

The choice of white spouses by black men seems to be galling to black women, as does the choice of Asian women by white men seem to be for Asian men. In the former cases especially, this reaction makes sense given the low marriage rate among blacks. Popular opinion says that whites must condone interracial marriage as a sign of good will to other races. I think many, if not most, black women would disagree with this.

Mrs. Johnson writes:

Considering that the overwhelming majority of all races, including black people, still marry within their own race, it is a bit excessive to make claims about what most black women or Asian men think about the higher interracial marriage rates of black men and Asian women. About one in ten black men that marry marry non-black women. There isn’t really the kind of movement towards mass interracial marriage that people like to presume. Even with Asians, as the trend moves away from East Asians toward South Asians (who are far more likely to stay within-group to marry than East Asians), even that disproportion in interracial marriage will become smaller over time. In the medium term, there has been an anecdotal trend towards more Asian men and black women marrying white women and white men, respectively, when they marry. But it is not clear that it will be reflected in 2020 census data, or that it will persist. But as Steve Sailer recently noted, and this is true with the Asian men and black women interracial marriage increases as well, interracial marriages are increasingly the province of older adults aged 30-45, not so much young, fertile adults under 30.

Laura writes:

I never stated that there was a mass movement toward interracial marriage nor do I “like to presume” anything about this issue or believe that a world without any interracial marriage is a practicable goal.

The figure you cite regarding black marriages is incorrect. As of 2008, 22 percent of black male newlyweds, or more than one in five, married a woman who was not black, a figure that is likely higher today. This is a significant number. Also, about 40 percent of Asian women in America now marry outside their race, as opposed to 20 percent of Asian men. Clearly, there are Asian men having a difficult time finding a spouse either here or in their native country.

The evidence is not anecdotal; there is indeed cause for concern, though not hysteria, and it is fair to assume this is a subject of concern for those who are losing out in the marriage pool. The rates for interracial marriage more than doubled for whites and nearly tripled for blacks from 1980 to 2008, according to the Pew report, which uses figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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