Mixed is the New Normal!

Last week the Associated Press released the news that interracial marriages are getting more and more common. According to the Pew Research Center Study, 1 in 12 US marriages are interracial marriages and the number is even higher in certain states, such as California and New Mexico, where 1 in 5 marriages are interracial or intercultural. The article also states that due to the increasing number of interracial marriages, multiracial Americans are a small but fast-growing demographic group, making up 9 million of the American population (read the full article by Hop Yen here).

The news was broadcasted as groundbreaking news but seemed overdue to me. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Blacks, Hispanics and Asians will make up the majority of the U.S. population by 2050, years ago. However, to me the most compelling prediction was made by Danzy Seena in her book Half and Half that appeared in 1998. In one of the book’s chapter named The Mulatto Millennium, she writes: “according to the racial zodiac, 2000 is the official Year of the Mulatto. Pure breeds (…) are out; hybridity is in. America loves us in all of our half-caste glory”.

Europe is facing a similar trend. Roughly, 20% of the German population is of immigrant background. That means 1 in 5 Germans have at least one non-German parent. Today, most of the newborn babies are of mixed ethnicity or children to immigrant parents in Germany. That Same goes for countries like France and the Netherlands. It is safe to assume that the industrialized world is going to be made up of a heterogeneous demographic landscape, advantaging people of mixed heritage; from being mixed and being the odd one out to being the new norm!