Interracial Relationships Part 2 - Fun Collaboration with 'ABC Storytelling'

Yes folks! This has been a long time in coming but it's finally here. The second part of my exploration of interracial relationships focuses on interracial relationships right here in Trinidad and Tobago. This time around, zooming in on this issue in my own country gave me opportunity to collaborate with a fellow blogger by the name of Anietha Charles. She is an amazing storyteller and hugely talented illustrator. I'll talk a little more on Anietha Charles and the collaboration in a bit. Such excitement!!!

I decided to explore IR's in Trinidad and Tobago because while doing research for part 1, I realized that there is very little said about it here. The most I could find were a few articles (about three) and they were from students like myself. There was probably one newspaper columnist who dealt with it as well. Videos were also scarce. I found one youtube video and it was from a UWI student. I couldn't say anything about how Trinbagonians feel about IR and so I chose to research the information by conducting interviews with the people of Trinidad and Tobago and recording it, thereby raising more awareness on the subject. This led to the video below, which can be seen as a general snapshot of how people in this country feel about IR's.

Over 30 people were interviewed in the course of one day and while the responses were varied, the prevailing attitudes were very similar. My camera guy, Zamfir Khan (a really cool guy. Please check out his blog) and I traversed COSTAATT university (College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago) and also the streets of down town POS to conduct the interviews and found many compliant folks who gladly gave their opinions. I really enjoyed the process.  I learned a lot and that day. After a hard day of canvasing the streets and conducting interviews I can say I am truly proud to be a Trinidadian.

There were, of course some sad discoveries. One of the students from the college mentioned that she had a friend who was a girl of East Indian decent who was romantically involved with a boy of African decent and that the parents of the girl were "kicking against it", as stated in the words of the student.  I won't pretend to be totally naive. I am aware of the racial tension between the people of East Indian decent and the people of African decent in this country but what I found to be interesting is that this mindset is primarily with the older generation. The young people of both races aren't thinking like their parents and grandparents. The younger generation have no hangups, no divisions and no reasons to be divided. They opt for unity and togetherness and that is very promising for us as a nation. So overall I must say that compared with other nations like the US and the UK, we are doing pretty good on the racial front, particularly where interracial relationships are concerned.

Collaboration with Anietha Charles

Anietha - a graphic design student - is such a talented individual. When I discovered her storytelling capabilities in addition to her artistic abilities, I was blown away. During my interviews I allowed the interviewees to tell stories about how IR couples they knew, met each other. I asked Anietha if she could illustrate these stories so that I could add them to the video. She did a fantastic job and I was so glad for the opportunity to work with her in such a way. As mentioned above she also writes a blog which is entitled "ABC Storytelling". Check it out here and look out for other fun collaborations coming soon. 

  

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.