Interracial Relationships Part 1

My cousin and his fiance!

As mentioned in my post on "'Dear White People'- the movie", I'd like to continue my ongoing discussion on racial issues by taking this opportunity to touch on yet another
hard-to-swallow subject - Interracial relationships/romances. I say it's a hard to swallow subject because while some people like the idea of an IR and others are indifferent to it, there are those who are absolutely against it. The question I ask now is WHY? Why are they against it? The reasons can be varied. But can these reasons be taken seriously? After all, everyone is entitled to their opinion...right?

In my view Interracial love is a beautiful thing. It is one of the few things that helps to alleviate tension between the races. One might disagree that it can do this because when two people of different races come together in a non platonic way, their families and friends sometimes have strong objections and even strangers on the street tend to add to the discomfort with disapproving looks and remarks. If people weren't so hung up on their own insecurities and if they weren't so afraid of the little differences between us all, the people of the human race, they would see that IR's help to banish the prejudices that may arise due to skin colour and allow people to love each other in spite of their differences.

Here are some global reasons I've heard being given for objecting Interracial Relationships:

• When you date or marry outside your race you are practicing hate against your own race.
• IR's destroy the black family/white family/hispanic family, etc.
• The few black men who are educated and have good jobs get stolen by white women.
• Black women only go with white men and vice versa so that their children can have lighter complexion and better textured hair (good hair).
• Men of other races marry white women so they can hold them up as trophy wives.
• An actual quote - "According to the laws of the bible no race mixing. It doesn't mean you hate other races, just don't marry into them."

Ok, for the record I object to every one of those reasons. That last one actually left me a little more than annoyed. It made me really angry because I've read the bible cover to cover and I have never seen anything that indicated that one race shouldn't marry another. Regardless of what your beliefs are you cannot deny that we all belong to the human race. When I look at a person who is the product of an interracial union I see exotic beauty impossible to deny.

Recently I found videos of the popular series "What Would You Do" from the abc network that tackles racial issues all the time, among other things. These videos, however dealt the specific issue of IR's. Watch the videos and let me know how they affect you in the comments section.

At the end of the day LOVE is the ultimate reason why people get married, whether those relationships are interracial or not. Sometimes a person isn't dating outside their race because of preference or because they want good hair for their kids. Most times it isn't even deliberate. People fall in love unexpectedly, life happens that way. Who you choose to marry should be your business, not your parents, not your friends, not your neighbours and certainly not the stranger on the street. So I ask the question why do people date and marry outside their race? It doesn't matter because at the end of it all, it's their life not yours. Let's all agree to let love have the last say.