Saturday, February 13, 2010

On Interracial Marriage: Increasingly accepted

 
Over the last several decades, the American public has grown increasingly accepting of interracial dating and marriage. This shift in opinion has been driven both by attitude change among individuals generally and by the fact that over the period, successive generations have reached adulthood with more racially liberal views than earlier generations. Millennials are no exception to this trend: Large majorities of 18-to-29 year olds express support for interracial marriage within their families, and the level of acceptance in this generation is greater than in other generations.
 
 
Robert of Northwest Baha'i Library noticed the above on the Pew Research site. Interracial marriage is of special interest to Baha'is given the following actions of Abdu'l-Baha. -gw
 
On September 27, 1912, Louis Gregory married a white English Baha’i, Louisa (Louise) A. M. Mathew.  It was the first interracial marriage in the American Bahá’í community and a tremendously significant act, considering that interracial marriage was still illegal in 17 states as recent as the 1960’s.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged the marriage, telling Gregory, “If you have any influence to get the races to intermarry, it will be very valuable”
 
 

Posted via email from Baha'i Views

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