Interracial marriage is a form of marriage outside a specific social group exogamy involving spouses who belong to different races or racialized ethnicities. In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United States and in South Africa as miscegenation. It became legal throughout the United States in , following the decision of the U. Virginia , which ruled that race-based restrictions on marriages, such as the anti-miscegenation law in the state of Virginia , violated the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Many jurisdictions have had regulations banning or restricting not just interracial marriage but also interracial sexual relations, including Germany during the Nazi period , South Africa under apartheid , and many states in the United States prior to a Supreme Court decision. Often couples in intercultural marriages face barriers that most married couples of the same culture are not exposed to.
Royal wedding: The UK's rapidly changing mixed-race population - BBC News
Interracial marriage in the United States has been legal in all U. Supreme Court Warren Court decision Loving v. Virginia that deemed "anti-miscegenation" laws unconstitutional. The proportion of interracial marriages as a proportion of all marriages has been increasing since , such that The proportion of interracial marriages is markedly different depending on the ethnicity and gender of the spouses.
These are external links and will open in a new window. Meghan Markle's marriage to Prince Harry will see her become the first mixed-race member of the Royal Family. How does the wedding reflect wider changes in UK society? The UK's growing number of people of different ethnic origins is often seen as a sign of a rapidly changing country. Their experiences can highlight shifting social attitudes and greater integration - or, sometimes, a lack of it.