Did you know only five percent of all relationships involve interracial couples? This makes it potentially problematic for interracial couples and their “mixed’ kids to survive with society’s disapproving stares and belittling comments. However, there seems to be hope in the near future.
All five of the people interviewed agreed that there is nothing wrong with dating outside their own race. Senior construction major Raymond Montelongo simply said, “Whatever makes you happy,” and junior special education major Alex Brown, went even further to say, “I have no problem with that [interracial relationships]. I give them more respect. They go through things that other couples don’t have to go through when dating within their own race. their skin is the first thing you see.”
When it comes to personally being in an interracial relationship, each person was asked if they would worry or care about society’s reactions.
Montelongo said, “If it affected me, yeah.” When asked if it was a waiter at a restaurant or someone to that extent, he stated, “If someone was being obviously rude, I’ll bring it up. If not, it’s probably the only time I’ll ever see them.”
Junior nursing major Dorenda Luna stated, “You shouldn’t worry what other people think. If you love each other and are willing to be together, it doesn’t matter what they think.”
So maybe the younger society can handle a new era of love without boundaries, but are their parents ready to handle it? Junior education major Karmen Donald explained how her parents feel about her interracial relationship, “They accept it. Even though it was a surprise knowing how they were brought up. Black were with blacks and whites were with whites and that’s how it was, but they just accepted mine.”
One student declined to express his parents’ feelings on the matter, and junior mass communications major Jasmine Terry, said, “She doesn’t agree with it. She believes that everyone should stay within their own race, which I don’t agree with.”
Is it an insult to one’s race to date outside of it? Brown stated, “No, I don’t think so but honestly, I just love black women, and personally, I think every black man should at least date one black woman.”
Donald added, “It’s not like I’ve only dated Mexicans. I’ve dated blacks and to me, they have no respect.”
But can one really embrace one’s own race and still date outside of it? Donald had an answer to this as well. “I can embrace his race and mine. When we are at his house they still speak Spanish but they also include me by speaking some English and teaching me some Spanish. When we have our baby, we want it to be able to speak Spanish and English,” she said.
As if language barriers aren’t enough, there are also issues that come up within the relationship itself, such as knowing what one can and can’t say in regards to their partner’s race. Luna disagrees with someone of another race using terms of her ethnicity, saying, “My ex-boyfriend used to call me a n***a and I would take offense. He didn’t like black people and I was like “Damn, I’m part black.””
Brown believes that, “It depends on how deep the relationship is,” but Donald argues that racial terms don’t matter because, “I called him a wetback once and he didn’t care because we understand each other. We know what we are and what we are not.”
Even though interracial couples look as if they are becoming more accepted, they still face difficulties. Donald said, “When we go places, a lot of younger Caucasian kids stare, kind of like in Save the Last Dance when the old lady is peeping on the bus, but that is just how it is.”
Montelongo said the biggest difficulty is gaining acceptance from the elderly crowd, and Brown concluded by saying the biggest difficulty is persecution from your own race and ridicule from family who doesn’t accept it. Interracial couples will go through a lot from society.”