A Discussion On Interracial Marriages

What happens when one marries outside of one's traditional community.

- Archana Painuly

Even though interracial and inter-ethnic marriages have been very common in many countries all around the world, and the mindset towards interracial marriage has been changing dramatically, the social stigma related to interracial marriages still exists in many societies.

One evening, a group of Indian women living in Denmark gathered to discuss Dr Rashmi Singla's popular research article, Intermarried Couples – Mental health and Psychological WellBeing.

The subject of mixed marriages is well researched and several articles have been published about it in journals in many countries, particularly in the USA and UK. Dr Singla, a psychology professor at Roskilde University, Denmark, and her team carried out a survey on mixed marriage in Denmark. The article covers some of the psychological challenges faced by married interracial couples. Intermarried couples in general face a range of psychosocial challenges in the context of dominant discourse of homogeneity coexisting with ethnic diversity. Marrying outside of their ethnicity, the couples have to handle the disapproval of their interracial relationship. The research focuses on the effects of interracial marriages on the mental health and well-being and everyday life of the intermarried couples.

MIXED MARRIAGES

An interracial marriage occurs when two people of different racial groups enter matrimony. An interracial marriage can convey wedlock between a Black and an Asian, a White and an Asian, a Hispanic and an Asian, a White and a Hispanic, and so on. Dr Singla and her team only included white Dane and Indian relationships in their research work. They focused on the life of mixed couples in Denmark.