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Most interracial and interethnic marriages are doing well, according to our interviews and surveys.

One challenge is processing high-profile racially charged events when partners have different backgrounds.

Raising children who may not resemble either parent and may have a different identity requires communication.

First, some facts: One in 10 Americans are in an interracial or interethnic marriage. Using classifications from the U.S. Census Bureau, interracial marriage was defined as between five racial groups—American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Asian Indian), Black or African American (e.g., Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or White (e.g., German, Italian, Lebanese, Egyptian). An interethnic marriage was also defined (using the Census Bureau’s terms) as between Hispanic/Latinos and non-Hispanic/Latinos.

In our new book, Interracial Marriage: How Diverse Couples Navigate Relationships in a Divided Time, Victoria Stubbs, Michael Woolley, and I describe race as a social construct, one forever changing in a period of our history when race is political and has been brought into the homes of so many Americans as a topic of discussion. Our couples were surveyed and interviewed at a time of unrest marked by the Black Lives Matter Movement, COVID-19 and anti-Asian sentiments, and debates........

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