Why You and Your Spouse being from the Same Racial Group is so Important for a Successful Marriage

Are you and your intended spouse from the same racial group? The whole subject of interracial marriage involves strong emotional tones and many misconceptions. Therefore we must begin by a clear statement of important relevant facts:

1. Racial differences in abilities and character are results of environment and conditioning.
They are not inborn. If we wanted to, we could take all our people over five feet ten inches in height and make a separate group out of them. We could call them by some special name, such as "Gigants." We might even convince ourselves and them that they were a different "race." Then, by treating them differently, we could actually make them different from the rest of us. If we denied them equal educational advantages and kicked them around enough, we could prove by scientific tests that the Gigant was intellectually inferior, more criminally inclined, and more sexually lax. "Would you want your daughter to marry a Gigant?" Actually it would be as absurd to talk about "the" Gigant (as though all of them were essentially the same) as it is to talk about "the" Negro, "the" Jew, or "the" white man.

2. Social attitudes, however misleading or false in themselves, are realities of vital importance in the selection of a life partner.
Let us see how this works out in this matter of interracial marriage. It sometimes happens that persons of different races fall in love with each other. There is nothing unnatural about this. It can happen here—to anyone. What about marriage?

There are customs, and in some states laws that place restrictions upon who can eat together in public places, who can stay in hotels, travel in public conveyances, and the like. Summer resorts and exclusive clubs often draw the line closely. Marriage across interracial lines, even when not forbidden by law or ironclad custom, is thus made exceedingly difficult by the culture in which we live. Why?—not because one or the other person is racially inferior, for this is not true. It is because love between two persons is never the only basis for successful marriage. The social situation has to be taken into account. The two will have to go to great pains to foresee the problems in which marriage would involve them, and it is especially important to consider the children that may come to them. In the face of these considerations, the two young people may conclude that marriage for them is not wise.