Miscegenation

Miscegenation is a term referring to sexual relations, and related aspects such as marriage and offspring, between individuals of different races. Contemporary usage of the term is less frequent than it once was, and the term is sometimes considered to be politically incorrect. Similar terms include "race mixing" and "interracial".

Etymology

Miscegenation comes from the Latin miscere, "to mix" and genus, "kind, race". It dates to 1863.

Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro was the name of a propaganda pamphlet printed in New York City in December 1863, and the first known instance of the word's use. The pamphlet purported to be in favor of promoting the intermarriage of whites and blacks until they were indistinguishably mixed, claiming this was the goal of the Republican Party. The pamphlet was revealed to be written by anti-Lincoln Northern Democrats ("Copperheads") to discredit the Republicans, the Lincoln administration, and the abolitionist movement. Some radical elements of the abolitionist movement did in fact did support the goals of the pamphlet, but it was largely because miscegenation was so repulsive to the common man that this propaganda was effective.

Racial status of mixed race persons/populations

It is today possible to genetically test mixed race individuals/groups and objectively determine the different racial ancestries and how much each racial ancestry contributes. The map shows the proportions of African, Amerindian, and European racial ancestry in various populations in Latin America according to a 2012 study.

See: Race: Mixed groups

Opposition in Israel

See Israel: Mixed Marriages.

Anti-miscegenation laws

Anti-miscegenation laws criminalize interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races.

Such laws were first introduced in North America from the late seventeenth century onward by several of the Thirteen Colonies and subsequently by many US states and US territories. After the Second World War, an increasing number of states repealed their anti-miscegenation laws. In 1967, in association with the Civil Rights Movement and increasing race denialism, in Loving v. Virginia, the remaining anti-miscegenation state laws were held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Similar laws have also existed in other countries and in effect still do in Israel.

Media depiction

Today, the politically correct media in Western countries give overwhelmingly positive descriptions of miscegenation and typically never mention the negative effects of race mixing described below.

Effects of race mixing

Main article: Effects of race mixing‎

See also

• White demographics

References

Part of this article consists of modified text from Wikipedia, and the article is therefore licensed under GFDL.