Miscegenation

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Miscegenation (from the Latin miscere, meaning "mix", and gens, meaning "people") is a term that refers to romantic relationships, marriages, or sexual liasons between those perceived to be of different races or ethnicities.

Despite the exceedingly close genetic similarities between all known humans, the concept is very widespread as a result of nationalist or religious pressure, traditionally to promote coherence between a defined group of people. While no longer banned in most Westernized countries, miscegenation figures into the citizenship laws of some countries ^[1] and is still forbidden by some fundamentalist religious beliefs, particularly some fundamentalist Protestant denominations in the United States who refer to the "Curse of Ham" ^[2] as a justification for separating white from black. (As a result, miscegenation is a common theme in pornography due to the perception of outsiders being more sexually alluring and/or more powerful.)

The case striking down miscegenation laws in the United States, Loving v. Virginia, was extremely influential in developing "Substantive Due Process". Today, the fight against miscegenation legislation is often invoked as precedent in the current fight for same-sex marriage.

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ The usual term used is jus sanguinis, Latin for "blood law", and among other countries still figures to varying degrees in the citizenship laws of Germany^{[citation needed]}, Ireland^{[citation needed]}, Israel^{[citation needed]}, and many Native American tribes^{[citation needed]}.
2. ↑ Referring to Noah's curse on his voyeuristic son Ham (traditionally thought of as the Biblical ancestor of the peoples of Africa) and his apparently ne'er-do-well son Canaan in Genesis.