"America is going to become Brazil", "Black love is dead", etc. etc.
Granted it is impossible to exactly tell how many people are screwing who (and I really don't care to be honest), there is often a sense that Black Americans have given up on each other and decided the grass is inevitably greener on the other side. IR marriage amongst Black folks is growing and at an all time high, even with compared to the recent 90s and 00s when IR was still relatively uncommon. But when you look at the nuts and bolts of who people marry and have children with, while IR is high in a historical context, in a national and global perspective compared to other groups, we actually have the highest rates of endogamy (marrying within your group) and having children with each other of almost any other minority in the non-majority Black western world. This includes the "on code" groups like Jews, all Asian groups, and non-Muslim South Asians raised in the West. The only groups that tend be lower tend to have religious barriers such as majority Muslim ethnic groups.
Example #1 - Black intermarriage rates by country
There was
a study here that compared Black intermarriage rates amongst all countries where statistics were kept. The exception is France which doesn't collect racial statistics (
@Liu Kang and
@mbewane probably going to slap me on this) but now collects data that traces families based on national/department origin that can be used as a proxy for race**. Below are the intermarriage rates for Black men, women and total by country. I left South Africa out since they were obvious (<2%) being majority Black.
% of Black marriages that are IR by sex and total (2010-11 numbers)
Country | Black Men | Black Women | Total |
France | 69% | 59% | 64% |
Cuba | | | 59% |
Brazil I (Black (negro/preto) identity only) | 62% | 52% | 57% |
Canada | | | 40% |
UK | 38% | 23% | 30% |
Brazil II (Black (negro/preto) + mixed (pardo) identity combined) | 27% | 25% | 26% |
USA | 25% | 10% | 17% |
Granted some of these are higher now. 2020 numbers has USA Black men and women up about 2% each and UK up at 38%.
There are a few reasons. First, Black Americans as a majority have a long history here and fight against racial laws whereas Canadian and European Blacks are typically recent immigrants. Also, we have a large population ratio (14%) compared to like 3% in the UK or Canada and high residential segregation. The paper also notes Black IR goes down for the more prosperous countries, possibly since there is less pressure to marry out to secure basic economic stability.
It isn't' just amongst other Black folks. We marry in more than other non-White minorities or Jews
Example 2: Black IR vs. other US minorities (2020 data)
US Minority | Total IR |
Non-Orthodox Jews | 61% |
| Asian women (US born not incl. East Indian) (based off CDC birth data) | 52% |
| Hispanic White women (US born) (based off CDC birth data) | 41% |
East Indian women (US born) (based off CDC birth data) | 33% |
| Asian(all) | 29% |
Hispanic White (all) | 27% |
Black (all) | 17% |
| Black women (US born) (based off CDC birth data) | 12% |
| East Indian (all) (based off CDC birth data) | 8% |
Note you can't really get the men only data from CDC births for US born as accurately; bolded includes men and women domestic or foreign born
**Beauchemin, C., Hamel, C., and Simon, P. (eds.) (2018). Trajectories and origins:
Survey on the diversity of the French population. Springer International
Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-76638-6.
