By: Dr. Jerry Bergman
Montpelier, Ohio
Many African countries under colonial rule attempted to prohibit, by law, or at least strongly condemn, interracial marriages between Black Africans and White settlers.
After World War One, mounting anxiety existed in African White circles “over the possible threat to white racial purity through mixed-race reproduction called ‘miscegenation.’
It was widely believed that the offspring of what Social Darwinists judged as superior and inferior races, would result in the gradual degeneration of the superior White race.
The inferior race, Social Darwinists predicted, would “bring down” the quality of the superior race.
In 1927, the Immorality Act was passed by the South African parliament, outlawing sexual relationships across the color line to prevent miscegenation.
Similarly, in September of 1935, the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour was passed by Germany’s parliament (the Reichstag) forbidding Aryans from having sexual relations with Jews.
University of Witwatersrand professor Harold B. Fantham supported banning interracial marriages and all sexual contact between Blacks and Whites to prevent the birth of offspring of mixed races. He also argued that the mentally unfit should be sterilized for the same reason.
One ‘solution’ practiced in Nazi Germany was to murder over ten million people. These policies were a necessary part of a campaign for what Professor Fantham termed a “eugenic conscience” in South Africa.
He also became very active in establishing numerous committees on genetics and eugenics in the South African Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for the same reason.
This issue was not unique to Africa. In the United States State from the late 17th century onwards, many states and territories prohibited interracial marriage, often under the term “miscegenation.” Also, often prohibited by law was interracial sexual relations.
These laws were rooted in racist and eugenic beliefs about racial purity and the supposed inferiority of certain, less evolved, racial groups, mostly Blacks.
These laws were not symbolic but were often actively enforced. Individuals who violated them were guilty of a felony, and faced imprisonment, fines, or other penalties. In some states, ministers were by law prohibited from officiating interracial marriages.
It was only in 1967 when the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision in Loving v. Virginia, declared banning interracial marriages unconstitutional.
Consequently, interracial marriages were legal nationwide, and all laws against miscegenation were null and void. The Loving case involved Richard and Mildred Loving, a marriage between a bi-racial native American-Black Women and a White man.
Interracial Marriage Beneficial
The claim that a putative inferior race would “bring down” the quality of the superior race is not supported by science.
In fact, interracial marriage tends to produce the exact opposite. Even the appearance of the mixed-race marriage’s offspring is more attractive than non-mixed-race marriage.
For this reason, interracial people are often preferred for modeling positions. This is why only 47 percent of models are White compared to the 61 percent of the American population that is White.
One example of an undesirable trait of some Asian women is the tendency to have pushed-in faces, which is most obvious from their face profile. But an oriental female who is the product of a mixed marriage rarely has this appearance.
Research into the area of what face traits makes an attractive female face computer combined several hundred faces.
The product was judged to be the most attractive. Thus, deviations from average were less attractive. Researchers have repeatedly found that composites of two different races, or average faces, are consistently rated as more attractive than the individual faces used to create them. This finding has led to the conclusion that averageness is a key factor in attractiveness.
Medical Reasons Supporting Interracial Marriages
The clearest example of the advantages of interracial marriage is the fact that many diseases are caused by two damaged recessive genes.
If only one gene is damaged (i.e., mutated), the person is most often normal. Sickle-cell anemia is the best-known example. If a damaged gene from the mother and father is inherited by their child, the disease results.
This particular damaged gene exists almost exclusively in the Black population. In a child who is the offspring of an interracial couple, sickle-cell disease is very rare.
Over 100,000 Americans have sickle-cell anemia, the most common life-shortening genetic disease in the United States.
People who inherit one mutated gene (hemoglobin S) from one parent are said to have the sickle-cell trait. They often have no, or minor, symptoms.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common autosomal recessive disease found in the White population, specifically Northern European descent Caucasians. It affects about 1 in 2,500 to 3,000 Caucasians.
CF is an autosomal recessive condition caused by mutations in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein, which is an epithelial cell chloride channel.
This protein is crucial for maintaining body salt and water balance, particularly in the lungs and other organs. Because this disease is very rare in the Black population, it is almost unknown in interracial marriages.
Science has proven that, as the Bible teaches, there is only one race, the human race. All humans are descendants of the first created couple, Adan and Eve.
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Dr. Bergman is a multi-award-winning teacher and author. He has taught in the science and psychology area for over 40 years at the University of Toledo Medical College, Bowling Green State University, and other colleges. His 9 degrees include a Doctorate from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He has over 1,800 publications in both scholarly and popular science journals that have been translated into 13 languages. His publications are in over 2,400 college libraries in 65 countries. Bergman has spoken over 2,000 times at colleges and churches in America, Canada, Europe, the South Sea Islands, and Africa.
