June 19, 2013
The New York Times asks “Is Interracial Marriage Still Scandalous?”
One out of 12 marriages in the United States is interracial, and interracial marriage has been legal nationwide since 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws forbidding it were unconstitutional. Yet, 46 years later, bias remains. Various writers address the issue in this “Room for Debate” feature in the New York Times. Related: Our June 5 Link of the Day called attention to this bias as it showed up in hate-filled, racist comments posted on YouTube. The comments were in reaction to a Cheerios ad that featured a loving interracial couple and their young daughter. Since then, a parody of that commercial has been independently produced to counter the hostile reactions of people who judge and condemn others’ choices about whom they love—this time in regard to another kind of marriage. Susan Campbell, on her Hot Dogma blog, has placed both the authentic advertisement and the parody together on the same post, which you can watch here. If you haven’t seen the actual original Cheerios ad (the lower one on Susan’s post), watch that video first. And then watch the spoof.
