No call for a parade, because it's not really success until there is no newsworthiness in statistical analysis of the subject, since it will be a given, but I see this as a positive step for our nation...
U.S. racial divide getting smallerDespite its battles over immigration, affirmative action, racial profiling and other issues, America is finally becoming a melting pot.
A powerful interracial tide has transformed friendships, dates, cohabitations, marriages and adoptions in just one generation. If the wave continues to grow, it could sweep away racial stereotypes and categorizations, as well as the rationale behind affirmative action and other broad minority protections. It remains to be seen, however, whether higher levels of social integration, especially among Asians, are benefiting blacks, the least integrated of U.S. minorities. Data from the 2010 census will make that a lot clearer.
For now, the interracial trend -- although evident everywhere -- is hard to gauge because young adults and children are at its vanguard: children such as Heshima Sikkenga, 9, of Apple Valley, Minn., for whom race "is a minor point, like brown hair or blond hair," as his father, Steve, put it.
But the wave is so far-reaching that the average American today, young or old, is 70% more likely than Americans were a generation ago to count a person of another race among his or her two or three best friends, according to an article in the current issue of American Sociological Review. The same percentage of applicants tells Match.com, a leading Internet dating service, that they're willing to date someone of another race.
In 1992, 9% of 18- to 19-year-olds said they were dating someone of a different race. A decade later, the figure was 20%, according to a 2005 study by sociologists Grace Kao of the University of Pennsylvania and Kara Joyner of Cornell University.
In 1992, 9% of 20- to 29-year-old Americans were living with people of different races. A decade later, Kao and Joyner found, 16% were.
In 1987, 8% of adoptions were interracial. By 2000, 17% were, according to Census Bureau demographer Rose Kreider.