Throughout human history marriage between people of different ethnicities has had its ups and downs. In some cultures, such a practice was fairly widespread, particularly in areas where multiple races interacted through trade or close proximity settlements. However, interracial marriages have also been prohibited in many cultures, and in many different times. As antiquated and bigoted as this may seem, the sad fact is that such prohibitions have been a part of our modern-day world, some having been overturned only as recently as the mid-1980s.
Believe it or not, this holds true for the United States itself. Although many states had already done away with the antiquated laws prohibiting interracial marriage, the truth is that it took a Supreme Court ruling in 1967 to make such a union legal throughout the entire country. This means that before 1967 it was still illegal for two consenting adults from different ethnic backgrounds to get married in no fewer than sixteen states. To put that into perspective, nuclear submarines had been in existence for about thirteen years before interracial marriages were ‘allowed’ in all fifty states. How a nation can be so advanced and yet so backward at the same time simply baffles the mind.
While the reasons for laws forbidding marriage between persons of different races may vary, there is a common denominator which unites them on a fundamental level─ control. Whether the laws were passed by a government body, an organized religion, or even if they came in the form of social taboos, the bottom line is that the single function that they served was to exert control over a populace. The real question is what is more difficult to wrap your mind around─ the fact that government bodies feel entitled to dictate terms for such a personal and intimate practice as marriage, or that it is only in today’s world that this is finally seen as unacceptable?
Even worse, if that can be said, is the fact that the same societies that prohibited interracial marriages also prohibited interracial relationships of any kind. Governing bodies passed laws forbidding sexual relations between individuals of different ethnic backgrounds, with long prison sentences awaiting any who were caught breaking these laws. This meant that within the walls of a prison were those guilty of murder, theft, and loving someone of a different skin color. How any society following such ‘values’ can be considered civilized is simply beyond comprehension.
The bottom line is that one of the main components of the ‘marriage equation’ within the Old Paradigm is that both members must be of the same ethnic background. This meant that the racial bias of the powers that be overruled the love two people felt for one another, as well as their desire to share their lives together, pursuing the love and pleasure that every living being is entitled to. Unfortunately, this is but one example of how control, power and bigotry define the true values of the Old Paradigm.