The Beauty in Interracial Marriage
To be completely honest, being an “interracial couple” has never really been a “thing” for me. What I mean is that I don’t regularly acknowledge it or even notice it. Perhaps it’s because we’ve grown up in an environment that has been loving and accepting of it. That, however, has not always been the case for couples.
It was an early morning in 1958 and husband and wife Richard and Mildred Loving were asleep. All of a sudden, two deputies burst into their bedroom and questioned them about the status of their relationship. Mildred informed the police officers that she was Richard’s wife as he signaled to their marriage certificate hanging on the wall. The sheriff informed the couple that their certificate was “no good here” causing them to be arrested, jailed and ordered to leave the state and not return for 25 years.
The Loving’s moved to Washington D.C. where marriage was legal, however what they faced was not something that was just going to go away. Mildred contacted Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy who helped them get their case to the ACLU which ultimately led to the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia. On June 12th, 1967 the four ruled unanimously in the favor of the Lovings causing the ban on interracial marriage to be overturned in 16 Southern States.
I am grateful to Richard and Mildred for putting up the fight that made it so that being part of an interracial couple is not an issue for me. Instead, it is beautiful.
I find the beauty in our differences and cultures coming together. I saw it from the moment we started dating.
He is White, I am Latina.
It started with the holiday’s. His family gathering were small, serene and sweet. Mine were loud, busy and full of food and conversation.
Then it moved on to the wedding planning. His family list of invites maxed out at double digits while mine was contained within three.
After that came the marriage. I had grown up eating Mexican food every single day but he, obviously, had not. I was not about to change that for him. I gathered recipes from his mom, wrote down recipes from my mother and grandmother, and then also learned to create recipes that we would call our own. Our dinner table has become a plethora of cultural foods for dinner every night.
It’s the differences in our cultures that make us who we are. It’s his family history and mine that make up our story. It’s our love for each other that makes us one.
Our skin color is each uniquely a representation of God. Our bloodline is ultimately together in Christ. I don’t have to worry about being married to a White man. At least not here. I know that isn’t the case for everybody. But it should be. It needs to be. Interracial marriages should not be a issue, they should be a beautiful representation of unity through diversity. Because being you and being me is beautiful, and together we make up the body of Christ. So today, I celebrate the legal ban of interracial marriage and speak hope for any cultural bans that make still exist. Let love reign through our cultural diversity.
