Why Do Parents Oppose Their Children Marrying A Person of a Different Skin Color? (Minimum 150 Words)

I agree with Catwhitehead and even though the world is getting more tolerant on this issue (cos there are higher rates of mixed relationships/marriages) Racism will never be totally eradicated.

Speaking for my parents – they are very open-minded. If I take a Russian, Polish or Spanish man home and introduced him as my future husband, they would welcome him with open arms. My parents have always said to me. “If you are happy, we are happy”.

For those who oppose such marriages, I hope they experience rejection in their lives so they see how it feels.

It's not the skin color parents object to. Few people have the same skin shade. Some parents have prejudices and preconceived notions of what people with a particular skin color are like. But for the most part, I believe parents want their children to be healthy, happy, and well taken care of, and they worry that this is less likely to happen if their children marry someone of a different culture.

There are a number of issues parents look at when their children are considering marriage. Will the potential spouse make enough money to keep their offspring in the manner to which they are (or want to be) accustomed? Is family important to them? Will they agree to spend family time with both sides of the family? What about religion, political views, morals, and values?

Many parents believe their children will be more likely to follow the path that leads to a good life if they marry someone similar to themselves. Looking at the blue eyed vs. brown eyed study of children that was publicized years ago can open eyes to the fact that people with different colors of skin can be more similar than they think. If people only married people who looked like them, we'd be a world of clones rather than a world of individuals.

YOU ALWAYS HAVE GOOD QUESTIONS.SOME PEOPLE LIVE WITH DIFFERENT SOCIAL BACK GROUNDS.MY PARENTS PRO ONE RACE BUT I WENT TO A SCHOOL WHERE ONE RACE DOMINATED.I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE OTHER RACE AN NEVER TOLD ANY ONE.I MADE CHOICES TO DATE MY RACE,BUT I DID NOT FEEL COMPLETE UNTIL I DATED OUT SIDE MY RACE.MY FRIENDS STILL TO THIS DAY DO NOT KNOW. BUT WHEN I MARRY I WILL MARRY THE RACE I LIKE.I AM BRAVE THIS TIME BECAUSE I WILL LOOK THE OTHER WAY AN BE HAPPY. THE GUYS IN COLLEGE WERE OKAY WITH IT.I LET MY SOUL MATE GO....... PEACE.

Skin color has a strong bearing on one's association with a culture. As one grows older, one's willingness to "experiment with newer cultures" gets narrower. Rightly or wrongly, most of us have an inborn affinity to our own clan and culture and consequently to our skin color too.

Like skin color, most of us have our affinity to our religion, religious sects, mother tongue, native country, native place and so on. All these affinities become more and more important and meaningful to us as we age.

In India, this affinity tends to get further narrowed down to the caste system. Indian parents want to have the highest say in the selection of a spouse for their children, because they want to ensure compatibility between the spouses in the long run.

My article on the success of Indian marriages may be of interest to you:

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-learn-successful-ma

I am assuming this question pertains to different skin color as a different race. I would say the parents who have this preference for their children to marry someone of the same race is not always motivated by a hatred for the other race. Most of the time it has to do with finding someone who is familiar with their culture, values and way of life in general. Even if a person is willing to learn the culture it will not be the same as if they were born into it. Falling in love with a person from a different race is just like falling in love with a person of the same race. Its what follows the after love chapter of their life that determines whether or not they feel complete in their relationship. Also remember it is not just about race, religion will play a huge role in the union of people of different races. You can have two races with the same faith and two races with entirely different faiths. The second two usually have more room for regret after marriage. And for some races if they are alike the appreciation for marriage as a sacred bond is stronger than some in Western society. All parents want success for their children and happiness. Its a parental desire.

Weddings are supposed to be a celebration of the joining of two people, two families, and the beginning of a new life and family. But marriage is a sacred bond that should be considered seriously, and it is... keep reading →

Take the minimum words off and you will get more responses. Hubbers know the value of lengthy hubs of relevance and quality. You may luck up and get someone who will give you a 150 word answer. But think about what I told you.

Quite simply because this world is cruel and certainly still full of discrimination and racism.

I think it also has to do with grandchildren.

Parents may have the ability to see that their son or daughter in an interacial relationship have the maturity and most of all the love for each other to make an interacial marriage work between themselves. But being parents, (admittedly more so the white parents) would worry any grandchildren may have to endure unnecessary discrimination, racism or bigotry,

The good news is that I think the stigmatism is becoming less and less and that the younger generation is less obsessed with racism than the older generation.

simple..because the race gets so mixed that it gets lost. Even God planned that each marry in their own race to keep the race pure.

That is the main reason, not to lose our race. It has nothing to do with being racist. It's to keep the race and culture pure as once you get mixed - all gets mixed and many lost.

Us natives married whites and thus lost our culture and our children don't even talk our language and we don't even look like aboriginals anymore because we so mixed.

fear that has been instilled in the person since childhood, also closed minds i mean have you ever seen interacial children how beautiful they are?

This is really a question for a dissertation or some other obnoxiously long and in-depth analysis. Personally I think it stems from a few things. Socioeconomic status is a big one. Unfortunately there are not equal proportions of Caucasians with money and people of color with money. Prejudice with respect to our preconceived notions about different types of people can affect how we feel about them.

Or it could just be people are inherently racist and afraid of what's different, who knows! great question, and some really good responses.

I absolutely agree with lindagoffigan here above.Surely,it is the quality and not the quantity that should matter.If you do decide to heed lindagoffigan's wise words,do let us know and I shall give you a very short and succinct answer to your question.Okay?