Ithaca , New York ( CNN ) -- According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center , one of every seven new marriages in 2008 was interracial or interethnic -- the highest percentage in U.S. history . The media and blogosphere have been atwitter . Finally , it seems , we have tangible evidence of America 's entry into a new post-racial society , proof of growing racial tolerance . Intermarriage trends are being celebrated as a positive sign that we have come to think of all Americans as , well , Americans . But others have an entirely different take -- a more ominous one . They see increasing interracial marriage rates as proof that the country is amalgamating racially . To them , intermarriage is a putative threat to whites and America 's essential character . Their concerns are heightened by recent Census Bureau projections that the U.S. will become a majority-minority society by the middle of the century . My research with Ken Johnson , a demographer at the University of New Hampshire , indicates that for American 's youngest residents , that future is now . Nearly half of U.S. births today are to minority women . It 's time for everyone -- on all sides of this issue -- to relax and take a deep breath . The reality is that racial boundaries remain firmly entrenched in American society . They are not likely to go away anytime soon . We are still far from a melting pot where distinct racial and ethnic groups blend into a multi-ethnic stew . Indeed , seemingly overlooked in the Pew Report is the finding that less than 5 percent of all married whites have a spouse of a different race or ethnicity . The vast majority of whites today -- as in the past -- marry other whites . What is changing are marriage patterns among America 's minorities , but in ways that are not easy to understand or summarize in short news releases . ( Pew used the categories of non-Hispanic whites , blacks , Asians , American Indians and Hispanics . ) For example , Pew reports that the share of newly married blacks with spouses of a different race increased threefold between 1980 and 2008 . Media accounts have variously trumpeted this as good or bad news for America 's future , depending on the presumptive beliefs and attitudes of their audiences about racial matters . It is easy to forget the U.S. Supreme Court waited until 1967 , in Loving v. Virginia , to outlaw state prohibitions against interracial marriage . Increases in black-white marriages , at least on a percentage basis , are large because baseline numbers are very small . Romantics like to believe that love is blind . We embrace the idea that falling in love is a product of our emotions rather than rational deliberation . Of course , the empirical evidence suggests otherwise . Love may be blind , but it clearly is not color-blind . Indeed , for all the hyperventilation , the demographic reality is that only about 15 percent of newly married blacks today became married to whites or other minorities . This is hardly a basis for celebrating a new racial tolerance in America or , if you prefer , for now believing that white identity is rapidly being lost to interracial intimacy and childbearing . Unfortunately , most of the nation 's headlines ignored Pew 's observation that intermarriage rates with whites actually have declined among Asians and Hispanics since 1980 . This is something new . My research with Julie Carmalt and Zhenchao Qian , to be published in Sociological Forum , documents recent declines in intermarriage rates among U.S.-born Hispanics and Asians after decades-long increases . Declines in intermarriage have been largest among the second generation , the U.S.-born children of immigrant parents . Among second-generation Hispanics , for example , intermarriages with whites declined by more than one-third between 1995 and 2008 . Over the same period , they became more likely to marry Hispanic immigrants . Since 1980 , there has been a fivefold increase in the number of native-born Asian women marrying Asian immigrants . One explanation is that substantial new immigration has simply expanded the marriage opportunities for native-born Hispanics and Asians . But it is also likely that the extraordinary recent growth of the immigrant population has reinforced a new sense of identity rooted in shared ethnicity and culture . This seems to have encouraged more in-marriage with co-ethnics at the expense of more out-marriage with whites . Demographers sometimes consider intermarriage to be the final step in the assimilation process , or an indicator of racial boundaries or lack of them . The current retreat from intermarriage among America 's non-black minorities raises new questions about racial and ethnic balkanization in America . Issues of race and immigration are an important part of the public dialogue . In today 's highly charged political environment , it is easy to latch onto information that buttresses our own point of view and preconceptions . Unfortunately , short headlines and easy-to-digest narratives about rising intermarriage rates tend to oversimplify or even distort a complicated statistical story that is still unfolding . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Daniel T. Lichter .
Daniel Lichter : 1 of 7 new 2008 marriages was interracial or interethnic , report says . Comment: Marriage patterns among minorities changing , he says , but in complex way . Complicated statistical story is still unfolding and can be easily distorted , Lichter cautions .