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Yifeng Wei
Professor Carlisi
ESL 33B
Project 3-Final draft
Dec. 14 2015
Different Perceptions of Interracial Group Can Hinder Interracial Relationships
As is known to all, the United States is a racially and ethnically diverse country. The
United States consist of Whites, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and American
Indians and so on. In such a diverse race country, there are many opportunities for different
race groups to develop relationships or form families outside of their racial communities.
This type of relationship or family is called interracial relationship.
According to the latest survey by U.S. Census Bureau, African-Americans are largest
racial minority among all the racial groups. The population of African-Americans is 41.7
million, making up nearly 13.2% of the United States population. The population of AfricanAmericans keeps increasing. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2060, there will be
more than 74.5 million African-Americans in the United States (see Fig. 1). As the rising
population of African-Americans, there are more and more African-Americans involve in
interracial relationships. Research has revealed that the number of marriage between African
Americans and Whites has blossomed quickly since last century. It has already doubled the
rate in 1980s until 2010 (Haq 2012). However, the increased number of interracial
relationships do not mean that everything will run smoothly and no impediment. Though the
rate of interracial relationships has increased since last century, the barriers caused by
different perceptions of interracial groups, especially between African-American and Whites,
still cannot be ignored because these barriers have negative impacts on biracial relationships.

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Fig. 1. Our Changing Nation: Black Population in the U.S.: 2000-2060. United States;
Dept. of Commerce; Census Bureau; Economic and Statistics Administration; Census.gov, 21
Jan. 2015; Web; 30 Nov. 2015; Fig. 1.

People from different race, such as African-Americans and Whites have different
perceptions of race issue. Since African-Americans realize the significance of race, they will
consider race of the person whom they possibly begin a relationship with (Tyson 40).
African-Americans are treated unfairly because of their race since long time ago. Racism and
discrimination influences their life style and the way of thinking. African-Americans insist
that race is an important factor for them to gain respect or approve from the society, so they
will care about whether the person is the same race when they are making decision like
developing an relationship. Or they will think about what their experience would be like if
they decide to start a relationship with people outside of their race. Thus, African-Americans
think about their possible partners race before beginning a relationship. If the person who
may become their partner in the future has different race with them, African-Americans may
hesitate. Tyson pointed out that, as Whites are the people who used to treat Blacks as slaves,
many African-Americans do not want to develop a relationship with Whites. Compare to
before, although the conflicts between African-Americans and Whites seem to reduce, the
conflicts are still there. Because of being slaves for Whites in such a long time, African-

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American did not win equally respect. They still have many negative views and thoughts
towards to Whites. That is the reason why here are still some African-Americans reject to
have connection or develop a relationship with Whites.
Compare to African-Americans, Whites are not too often discrimination by other races
so they do not think racial discrimination will be a big problem for them. This perception
influences their relationship with other race group. Whites cannot understand racial issue well
and less involve in the interracial relationships (Leslie 561). Whites did not have experience
of being slaves, and they do not getting discrimination from others racial group because they
are the majority. Also, they have been in higher social status for a long time (Greason). They
assume that racism and discriminations are far away from their partners, so they do not
worry about discrimination or racism during they having relationships with AfricanAmericans. When African-Americans talk about race issue with their Whites partners, they
would feel disappointed because they do not get comprehension or comfort from. Whites
perceptions of race even lead to worse consequences when they talk about race issue with
their African-American partners. Whites who have less awareness of importance of race may
say something inappropriate about the racial problem during interracial relationship (Shelton
401).
Another difference between African-Americans perceptions and Whites perceptions is
the perception of social identity. Papish said that African-Americans social identity is defined
by the thought that they think of themselves as and act as a nationshare general wills
such as race and culture . In other words, African-Americans insist their race are a nation,
everyone in this nation should have same views and opinions about everything around
them. They expect that their race group share the same opinions. In Kreagers article, he
claimed that some AfricanAmericans disapprove interracial relationship because they think
that interracial relationship does not share the same general wills and challenge their social

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identity. It is means that African-Americans prefer to have relationship within their racial
community rather than other outside of their racial community. They would not very
welcome other race groups that have different views to be their partners. African-Americans
perception of social identity obviously blocks the development of interracial relationships.
While African Americans regard them as a nations, Whites' social identity is highly
defined by white privilege", a term for describing the advantages only for Whites (Greason
79). White privilege" makes whites disrespect other race group and also object to share the
same national community with other race group. Whites assert that white privilege is
valuable, and it is the benefit only belonging to them. That is the reason why some Whites
objection of interracial relationship. Kreager did some studies on interracial relationship and
found that Whites who do not accept interracial relationships think that interracial
relationship is a threat to white privilege. In order to protect white privilege, Whites do
not want to break the boundary of the Whites community. As a result, it reduces the
opportunities to develop interracial relationships.
Thebarrierscausedbydifferentperceptionsmayhaveseriousnegativeimpacton
interracialrelationships.AsWestsarguments,lesssimilarityofperceptionscontributesto
tworesults,includingmoreanxietyduringinteractionandlessinterestinkeepingtouchwith
others.If people lack interests to contact with others, there is no chance for a relationship to
continue developing. Finchilescu pointed out the high anxiety can hinder the contact with
different race people. Therefore, high anxiety is one of stumbling blocks of intercultural
communication (Barna 71). If people do not get enough communication, they will not
understand each other well. They do not even have chance to consider whether they should
start a relationship. It is not possible for them to form interracial relationships. Thus, Few
similar perceptions affect interracial relationships between AfricanAmericansandWhites,
andbecomeabarriertothem.

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Besides the point that more anxiety during interaction and less interest caused by
different perceptions would hold back interracial relationship, different perceptions will also
hinder the development of a closer relationship. Murray claims that similar perceptions can
help mutual understanding and communication of intergroup. And better mutual
understanding of dating couple is benefit for developing a closer relationship (Murstein
1972). African-Americans and Whites have no similarity in perceptions, so they cannot
understand and communicate with others very well, and get benefit for a closer relationship.
That is the reason why different perceptions will impede interracial group to develop a closer
relationship.
Different perceptions may result in interracial relationship breakdown. Murray insists
that the less similarity between interracial couples, the less satisfaction they can receive from
their relationship. According to the points that mentioned above, African-Americans and
Whites have different perceptions. The more difference they have, the less satisfaction they
have from the relationship. Bourassa also did some research about marriage satisfaction. He
found that lacking of marriage satisfaction might lead to divorce. The result of AfricanAmericans and Whites different perceptions are very obvious, they will just have few
satisfactions, and lead to separate or divorce.
Barriers caused by different perceptions may have serious impact on interracial families
of African-Americans and Whites. According to Sparks, parents have major influence on
Childs self-concept and self-identity (156). Since African-Americans and Whites do not
share the same perceptions, sometimes child confuse about their parents different
perceptions. It is difficult for them to make a decision to carry forward which racial groups
perception from their parents. So it do not help child to build self-concept and self-identity.
Furthermore, when African-Americans and Whites consider passing which racial groups
perception to their children, there will be conflicts between biracial parents because they have

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different perceptions. The conflicts are very harmful for interracial marriage or interracial
families.
Event though barriers caused by different perceptions have serious negative impact on
interracial relationship such as divorce, there can be some possible solution to reduce the
impacts. People who want to maintain their relationship should focus on the similarities
between them instead of placing emphasis on their difference (Wong 256). If people focus on
similarities not the difference, the barriers caused by differences may be reduces, and they
can get more satisfactions from their relationships. It can maintain their relationships and
avoid relationships breakdown. In this case, African Americans and Whites should respect
each other and do not focus on their different social identity. As a result, they will be more
open-minded for people who are outside their racial group.
Another possible solution is to have more educations about race issue(Tyson 50). People
can gather more information about other race, and understand other race group though
education. It helps them to reduce the misunderstanding of other race, and find out some
similarities of other race. Moreover, education makes people more open-minded. If people
are open-minded, it will make them accept more new information or differences from other
race group. Thus, interracial people can more involve in their relationship and the bond
between them will be stronger.
Since last century the rate of interracial relationships has increased a lot. However, there
are still some blocks to interracial group. These blocks influenced negatively on interracial
group. It even can contribute to relationship breakdown or divorce. In my opinion, I have a
piece of suggestion to reduce the barriers. If people want to develop an interracial
relationship or maintain interracial relationship, they need to more tolerant the difference of
perception. It will bring more happiness and satisfaction in interracial relationships.

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