The marriage of two people from different cultures is becoming more common in the U.S.’ ever-evolving society. But it hasn’t always been this way. In the past, especially, interracial marriage had long elicited hostility and discrimination – and was even banned at times.
Even states now known for progressive and liberal policies like California prohibited interracial marriage. But consider: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had even restricted Chinese immigration for over a half century and Japanese Americans including U.S. citizens were forced to “internment” camps during World War 2 – both symbols of persistent xenophobia. It wasn’t until the 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia that remaining miscegenation faded away in the U.S.
The Sampan spoke with four people who are in interracial marriages about their experiences with love, discrimination and acceptance. Here are their stories:
Ron Suga: Who Cares What the Neighborhood Thinks
I was born and raised in New York, sansei – third generation in America. All of my grandparents immigrated from Japan at the close of the 1800s. My parents were raised to be “good Americans” and spoke no Japanese and were taught little about the “old country.” I attended a suburban Long Island high school where I was one of two Asian American students out of a class of four hundred almost entirely white students. It was there that I met my wife-to-be. She was born in Scotland and moved to New York as a child. Her family was very Scottish. I loved to hear them talk and thoroughly enjoyed the contrast. Her family get-togethers were jovial, drinks flowed freely and they seemed to welcome me warmly. When my family gathered, the atmosphere was polite, quiet and dry. It would be hard to imagine two more different families.
We were married less than two years out of high school. We moved to upstate New York where I was attending college. We looked like children. Early in our…
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