Interracial marriage
An interracial couple is a romantic couple or marriage in which the partners are of differing races.
Historically, there have been controversies over inter-racial couples, for reasons now commonly regarded as racist, such as fears of "racial impurity". South Africa, Canada, Australia and the United States are but a few countries who had regulations banning inter-racial marriage. Today, though still a minority, inter-racial couples are increasingly common as people increasingly ignore ethnic origins as criteria for the selection of partners.
An example of how miscegenation laws were enacted can be seen during the 1930s, when the racist and Anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws enacted by the Nazis in Germany against the large German Jewish community, forbidding marriages between the Jews (deemed as Untermenschen - "lower people") and German "Aryans" (deemed the Ubermenschen - "higher people"). Many interfaith and intermarried couples committed suicide when these laws came into effect.
As of 2004, no countries have laws against miscegenation, but opposition to interracial marriages remains part of the program of racist political parties such as the British National Party.
See: List of interracial, interethnic or intercultural couples, miscegenation
