A new study of interracial marriages in the United States since the 1980s, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, reveals that marriages between Black and White populations have continued to increase. Meanwhile, Hispanic Americans have turned to marrying their racial compatriots who recently came to the United States.

“Understanding changes in interracial marriages is complex because it involves two different factors,” said Zhenchao Qian, lead author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University, “the marriage market (for an individual includes): who is available to marriage and also the individuals’ choices about who they would be willing to marry.”

“It used to be that race trumped everything, including education, when it came to marriage between Blacks and Whites; that is changing,” concluded Qian. “For the first time, we found that highly educated Blacks and Whites were more likely to intermarry. That is very significant and is another sign that racial boundaries are blurring.”

The total number of marriages between Blacks and Whites continues to be much smaller than those between Whites and other racial and ethnic groups. “The number of marriages between Whites and African Americans is undeniably increasing rapidly, but it is still a small number,” added Qian.

In 1980, only 5 percent of Black men married a White woman, but that increased to 14 percent in 2008. Still, by comparison, 38 percent of Asian American men and Hispanic men married a White woman in 2008.

The trend for other Americans is different: Marriages between U.S. born and foreign-born Asians and Hispanics increased rapidly between 2000 and 2008. This is due to the increase in immigration of Hispanics and Asians into the United States resulting in a larger pool of potential marriage partners from their own racial and ethnic groups.

The study uses data from the 2008 American Community Survey, an ongoing survey of American households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

MisAdventures of Awkward Black Girl

26-year-old Issa Rae is burning up the Internet with her new comical MisAdventures of Awkward Black Girl. While the online series does not emphasize interracial relationships and includes profanity, Episode 5 and 7 have an interesting take on Black Female-White Male relationships. Though the episodes are better understood after seeing the previous episodes, if you have not seen the earlier episodes, you will get the situation and probably some good laughs.

 

Economic Opportunity, Jobs! Town Hall Meeting featuring Bennett College President and POH Cover model Julianne Malveaux (pictured left), with remarks from Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and moderated by former labor secretary Alexis Herman takes place at the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Foundation Issue Forum

Thu, Sep 22; 9:00a - 11:30a
Washington Convention Center
Washington, D.C.

Confirmed panelists for a ground breaking CBC Issue Forum on Black, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual issues include Cheryl Kilodavis, author of the Princess Boy and proud parent to a 6-year-old boy who wears pink dresses, as well as Sirdeaner Walker, mother of Carl Walker-Hoover, who committed suicide at the age of 11 because he was being bullied at school. This forum takes place:

Fri, Sep 23; 9a - 11:50a
Washington Convention Center
Washington, D.C.

Click here for the full Congressional Black Caucus
Annual Legislative Conference Schedule

President Obama, a former CBC member, will address the last event, The Phoenix Dinner, Friday at 6p.

In early America, Whites called the Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek Native Americans “civilized tribes,” even as they forced them from their land along with their enslaved Africans. Whites called these five groups civilized because they were willing to own Africans brought to America by the Europeans. The enslaved were later called “Freedmen.”

In late August, the Cherokee nation’s Supreme Court ruled that a 2007 Cherokee nation decision to kick the so-called "Freedmen" off its membership rolls was legal. Removal from the membership rolls means the Freedmen are no longer eligible for free health care and other benefits such as education concessions.

As a sovereign nation, Cherokee Nation officials maintain that the tribe has the right to amend its constitutional membership requirements. But not too ago, the Seminoles tried to kick their Freedmen out of their sovereign nation. So, the federal government declared the Seminoles in violation of their treaty with the United States to recognize the tribe's sovereignty. As a result the Freedmen were reincorporated in the Seminole nation in 2003.

Read more in Time magazine

Note: Eartha Kitt's mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent and her father of German or Dutch descent.

 

 

 

 

"The Storm Is Passing Over" is the lead single of 2010 Stellar Award Winners Rev. Dr. Emory Andrews and The Oxon Hill High School Choir’s upcoming CD. The full project containing the single drops Tuesday, October 11 during a celebration at the Oxon Hill Science and Technology High School in Oxon Hill, MD. 

The play's subtitle peaks to diversity: Black Gay Men of the South when similar "diversity discovery" plays focus on the stories of White, urban, northern, gay men with money. The Signature Theater presents this 90 minute play, Sweat Tea:  Black Gay Men of the South, through Sunday, October 9.

While the play does present the stories of 13 diverse southerners from the elderly to the young, most of the men are stereotypical non-masculine images. E. Patrick Johnson in his portrayal of these many characters draws hearty laughs, especially when he refers to contemporary situations such as the Revered Eddie Long fiasco.

Peter Michael, publisher of the Underground Railroad Free Press, has announced the winners of the 2011 Underground Railroad Free Press awards. They are, for:

Preservation
Randy Harris - Gained protection of threatened Underground Railroad and abolitionist sites in Pennsylvania

 

 

 



Knowledge
Bryan and Shannon Prince - Historians of African-Canadians and the Underground Railroad

 

 



Leadership
Jean Regan-Dinius - The driving force behind the State of Indiana’s Underground Railroad program

 

 

 

The White House has released a stunning, but simple slide show that explains the American Jobs Act.



 

Baltimore Book Festival
Mount Vernon Place
(600 N. Charles)
Fri-Sun, Sep 23 – 25
Fri & Sat 12-8p; Sun 12-7p

2011 National Book Festival
National Mall
(bwtn 9th & 14th Sts) Sat & Sun, Sept 24 & 25
Fri 10a – 5:30p
Sat 1p – 5:30p
authors include: Terry McMillan and Toni Morrison

Freedom Rising: The Battle to Abolish African Slavery in the Western Hemisphere
C.R. Gibbs
PG Library - Greenbelt Branch
Tue, Oct 4, 7p, free