Interracial Marriage: How Diverse Couples Navigate Relationships in a Divided Time

The rate of interracial marriage in the United States has steadily increased: One in six new marriages now crosses racial or ethnic lines. Yet these partnerships are not always embraced or even accepted by families, friends, and society. Within families, issues ranging from food and holiday traditions to parenting approaches and beliefs about gender roles sometimes must be negotiated between cultures. In a time of national division, questions of race and identity have become deeply fraught. The way these couples navigate differences is a model for how Americans, despite their differences, can come together.

This book―based on interviews with and surveys of hundreds of people and informed by the authors’ many decades of experience as therapists and researchers―explores how intermarried couples build lives together. People of varied backgrounds describe how they navigate a world where others wonder about their relationship, question the parentage of their children, and treat them differently from their partner based on their appearance. Spouses relate their experiences forming fulfilling relationships in the face of potential disapproval, and they speak candidly about the joys and challenges of raising mixed-race children. Many of these couples have strengthened their relationships by learning to communicate across cultural barriers, and they share strategies for overcoming misunderstandings. At once large-scale and intimate, this book offers practical advice and timely insight into the triumphs and struggles of love across lines of difference.

Geoffrey L. Greif is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and a licensed clinical social worker.

Victoria D. Stubbs is the founder of Inner Truth Psychotherapy and Wellness and was previously a full-time clinical instructor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Michael E. Woolley is a retired professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. He is coauthor, with Greif, of Adult Sibling Relationships (Columbia, 2016).