Men
Women
The Houston Area Survey asked 813 residents about their ethnicity and that of their spouses. The two graphs above display the amount of intermarriage for each racial/ethnic group for each sex. While whites, blacks, and Hispanics are all numerous in Houston, the "Asian" and "other" categories are based on very small samples.
For both men and women, Asians mix the most, and it's almost exclusively with whites. This shows white-Asian compatability, and perhaps the difficulty Asians have finding a co-ethnic mate because of small numbers.
Whites, especially women, usually marry within their race: the percentages are 93.9 for females and 85.6 for males. When they marry interracially, it's most often with Latinos.
For black men, 92.5% are married to black women; 5.0% are married to white women. Almost all black women (97.2%) have black husbands. The tiny amount remaining are married to whites.
Roughly 85% of both Hispanic men and women have spouses of the same ethnicity. Approximately 10% of both sexes are married to whites.
Notice how in this sample no Hispanics or Asians have black spouses.
These results indicate that there is high compatibility between whites and Asians, and whites and Hispanics, and low compatibility with the two minority groups and blacks. Few whites are married to blacks as well: 1.0% of white men and 0.9% of white women.
The sample is really too small for an analysis limited to young people, but I will say that it looks like the trend is more marrying outside of one's group among young whites, blacks, and Asians, but less of it among Hispanics. Their growing numbers might be increasing homogamy.
For both men and women, Asians mix the most, and it's almost exclusively with whites. This shows white-Asian compatability, and perhaps the difficulty Asians have finding a co-ethnic mate because of small numbers.
Whites, especially women, usually marry within their race: the percentages are 93.9 for females and 85.6 for males. When they marry interracially, it's most often with Latinos.
For black men, 92.5% are married to black women; 5.0% are married to white women. Almost all black women (97.2%) have black husbands. The tiny amount remaining are married to whites.
Roughly 85% of both Hispanic men and women have spouses of the same ethnicity. Approximately 10% of both sexes are married to whites.
Notice how in this sample no Hispanics or Asians have black spouses.
These results indicate that there is high compatibility between whites and Asians, and whites and Hispanics, and low compatibility with the two minority groups and blacks. Few whites are married to blacks as well: 1.0% of white men and 0.9% of white women.
The sample is really too small for an analysis limited to young people, but I will say that it looks like the trend is more marrying outside of one's group among young whites, blacks, and Asians, but less of it among Hispanics. Their growing numbers might be increasing homogamy.
Doesn't the high rate of illegitimacy cloud the picture? If a majority of reproduction goes on outside of marriage for blacks and Hispanics, this could be the case for mixed race couples involving these groups. Is there a way of looking at who is reproducing together (married and unmarried). It would be good to know how these numbers differ more generally from the marriage stats.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting about Houston.
ReplyDeleteThe national figures I've seen in the past are that nearly half of all Asians and about 1/3 of Hispanics marry outside their category. I wonder whether Houston is just atypical or whether the national numbers have changed in the last decade or so.
It's only anecdotal, but I've logged a decent amount of hours at a dance club in the Mountain Time Zone that caters primarily to people aged 16 to 18. The Hispanic girls (almost all Mexican) don't dance with White guys, and White girls with Hispanic guys is also pretty rare (maybe a bit less rare).
ReplyDeleteBlack girls only dance with Black guys, though the Obama naivete is at work in this homogeneous area, so that Black guys dancing with White girls is marginally common.
The atmosphere is not geared toward marriage but just grinding your crotch against someone you like. The class and ethnic background of the patrons suggest there's got to be some illegitimacy going on now or in the near future.
My first gf, way back in 1992 (when I was 12), was Salvadorean (in the DC metro area), and she asked me out. During HS, it felt like a transition period to now, when Hispanics are numerous enough that they don't date outside their race as much as before.
Jason: I don't see any data on illegitimacy, but I should've mentioned that the survey asked about spouses or domestic partners, so cohabitors are included.
ReplyDeleteIt's only anecdotal, but I've logged a decent amount of hours at a dance club in the Mountain Time Zone that caters primarily to people aged 16 to 18. The Hispanic girls (almost all Mexican) don't dance with White guys, and White girls with Hispanic guys is also pretty rare (maybe a bit less rare).
ReplyDeleteI find it sort of depressing that the Hispanic girls avoid white guys. According to statistics, including those right in this post, WM/HF marriages aren't uncommon, it looks as if the younger generation is getting out of the practice.
Is homogamy a sociology term? I have a feeling it'll be 'reclaimed' to meean gay marriage.
ReplyDeleteAgnostic, what's your sense of the racial backgrounf of the Hispanics in your area? Are they mostly spanish or native? Intuitively, it would seem that the more European hispanics would mix more with whites.
If 0 is Amerindian looking, and 1 is Spanish looking, I'd say half are 0.25 and the other half 0.5.
ReplyDeleteSailer has made the point, I think, that large scale Hispanic immigration is going to retard the assimilation process, since there will be less pressure to go outside one's family and social circle for entertainment and to meet new people.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe it's a generational thing, but my experience has been that Hispanic women consider having an Anglo BF or spouse to be something of a status symbol. When I was divorced a few years ago and was doing the online dating thing, I got more unsolicited contacts from Hispanic women than either whites or Asians. OTOH, there's a lot of pressure in Hispanic families for the guys NOT to marry Anglo women, especially blondes. The thinking is that the woman will "corrupt" the man, and eventually prevent him from fulfilling his family responsibilities, i.e. giving money to his parents and his less-well-off siblings.
So Agnostic, do you see any difference with whiter and less white hispanics dancing with American whites?
ReplyDeleteRoughly, is it a cultural block or a racial block?
These results indicate that there is high compatibility between whites and Asians, and whites and Hispanics, and low compatibility with the two minority groups and blacks.
ReplyDeleteThe results appear to support Yancey's theory.
"This is precisely why George Yancey’s book Who is White?: Latinos, Asians, and the New Black/Nonblack Divide is such a necessary read. Yancey, a sociologist at the University of North Texas, provides compelling evidence that supports the (unstated) hypothesis that the color line of the twentieth century will remain firmly entrenched in the twenty-first. Using as his point of departure the popular projection that whites will soon be a minority group, Yancey opens his book by arguing that whites will remain the majority despite the growing populations of Latino/as and Asian Americans. How can the increase of Latino/as and Asian Americans enforce, rather than disrupt, the color line? Simple. By 2050, according to Yancey, most Latino/as and Asian Americans will be white."