Do you remember the ad for Cheerios that aired during the 2013 Super Bowl? It became one of the most provocative commercials of the night. Angry backlash – comments such as “disgusting” and “made me want to vomit,” according to The Huffington Post – followed the commercial within hours. Reading those reactions, you might think it was about terrorism, mass murder, or some horror. Would you be shocked to find out these words were being used to describe an interracial relationship? I'm just as confused as you are.

That commercial wasn't the only one to create an uproar. More recently a Honey Maid ad featured gay and interracial couples. In the YouTube comments someone wrote, “Had to ruin it with the gay couple.” And according to ABC News, “One person tweeted, ‘Your TV commercial is awful.'” Another wrote, “Buh bye Honey Maid snacks, not in my house.”

It's crazy to think that in 2014, some people are still judging others by skin color, but it's inevitable. There will always be those who stick with their traditional way of thinking, and there's no changing them, but there is hope. We millennials have been immersed in a world where we don't see color – or at least, we don't notice it like others do. And we have television to thank for that.

It's no surprise that millennials watch lots of TV – on the Internet, on our tablets, even on our phones. Generations ago, although people watched TV, there weren't many shows that featured interracial couples because it was still culturally taboo. The most famous interracial couple on TV starred on the “I Love Lucy” show in the 1950s. It featured a white woman, Lucy, and her husband, Ricky, who was Cuban. Although not everyone at the time agreed with racial mixing, this was a very popular show.

Little by little more shows with interracial couples appeared. “The Jeffersons,” which aired in the '70s, featured a white man and an African-American woman. “Dynasty” came out in the '80s and “True Colors” in the '90s.

Could this be the reason that 85 percent of millennials would be fine with an interracial marriage, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center? The acceptance rate drops to about 73 percent among 30- to 49-year-olds, 55 percent among 50- to 64-year-olds, and just 38 percent of people 65 and older. People who have been more exposed to interracial couples on TV are clearly more tolerant of the idea. Television helped make a taboo subject acceptable, and now most people don't think twice with they see an interracial couple, on TV or in real life.

Not so coincidentally, interracial marriages are at an all-time high in the United States. According to Pew, rates of interracial marriages in the U.S. more than doubled between 1980 (6.7 percent) and 2008 (14.6 percent). America is becoming more accepting of all types of love, and soon commercials with interracial couples won't be talked about.

With interracial marriages growing each day, people are taking notice. The National Geographic article “What Americans Will Look Like in 2050” shows the huge impact interracial marriages are having on America. We will soon be a very mixed nation and we won't be able to categorize each other in racial groups, because most of us won't be just “white” or “Latino.” Our generation will have to embrace this change, and I feel that we will have no problem doing so.

The National Geographic article sums it up nicely: “What does this mean for millennials? As a population composed largely of over-educated 20-somethings, our generation is primed and expected to play a major role in populating this projected future America.”

Television has a way of making even the most taboo subjects acceptable. This proved to be true with the impact TV shows and commercials had in influencing acceptance of interracial couples. Ours is a new generation that is accepting of change, and that is something to be proud of.