Are Interracial Marriages the Reason Black Women Are Single?

The New York Times recently used new data indicating increased rates in interracial marriages to highlight the "plight" of single black women who can't find a good man.

In a nutshell, the Pew Research Center reports that 13 percent of Black men had a non-black spouse, compared to 6 percent of Black women. And in 2008, there was a significant increase in the number of Black men who married women who were not black.

The Times article's headline, "Black Women See Fewer Black Men at the Altar," makes it seem like the piece was blaming black female singlehood on men who choose to marry non-black women? Supposedly, black women don't make it to the altar because their men have already jumped the broom with Becky or Suzy.

Blaming the swirl action for single black women just isn't cutting it. Though more than ten percent of black men chose to marry a non-black woman, it clearly doesn't account for the majority. What about the 87 percent of black men who do marry black women? If I've got my math straight, 87 is greater than 13, so more black men have embraced their women than the ones who haven't.

This article reminds me of the recent 'Nightline' special, in which black men and women had a "face off." Fingers were pointed at each gender as they tried to explain away why many successful black women end up without a spouses.

We don't know the reason many black women will remain unmarried but, any argument or dialogue that has a tone of pitting black women and men (or black women and non-black women) against one another can be dangerous and create further rifts between us.

The Pew study reports interracial marriage between all groups is at a record high. 9 percent of Whites, 26 percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of Asians married a person of a different race in 2008.

Clearly, interracial marriage isn't something that's limited to black folks. Even more interesting was that Asians and Hispanics married interracially at even higher rates.

Where's the discussion or the 'Nightline' town hall meetings on the nearly half of American-born Asians who marry non-Asians?

Also, what we define as "swirl" action (i.e. a black and white couple) isn't as prevalent as we may have thought or been lead to believe. Though interracial marriage is on the rise, the pairing of a black and white mate is the least common combo, according to the study.

Though the Pew Research Center presents interesting data that reflects the changing trends in marriage, it's hard not to question how and why the Times chose to peg the article in such a way and why the impact of interracial relationships on other groups isn't looked at as well.

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