We live in an increasingly diverse and increasingly mongrel society, a nation of blurred boundaries and bizarre extremes. Never before in history has a society been as diverse as the U.S. is today. And never before have so many different traditions, beliefs and values been integrated into a single culture. Miscegenation is still regarded as culturally taboo on Main Street. As recently as 20 years ago, some states still had laws in place forbidding interracial marriage.
Many people complain that miscegenation waters down their culture.
Some Jews, for example, blame the disintegration of Judaism on the growing rate of interfaith marriages in America. A century ago, half of all Indians in the U.S. were considered fullbloods. Today the number is down to about 20 percent. As writer Richard Rodriguez has pointed out, we have never had an especially rich vocabulary for miscegenation. Bureaucrats in Washington are now preparing a form for the 2000 census.