Real Experiences for BHM 2016: Interracial Dating

Since today is valentines day i thought today's post should be in honor of Loving v. Virginia (if that doesn't ring a bell, google is your friend). Despite not being legal until 1967 (I don't know about y'all but that's around the time my parents were in high school), interracial relationships have had a major impact on the Black community. Rich cultures like the Creole in Louisiana were born from such occurrences. As many times as I've said "I'm not mixed"--as in I'm not biracial--even I know that there's no way I came out looking like me without a white person in the mix some where back there. Not only did these types of forbidden relationships shape the diversity in the appearance of Blacks (which isn't saying much I guess since African's already have the most diversity within our DNA anyway), but inter-personal relationships is what makes people realize the stupidity of racism. One of my favorite movies is Belle, because it shows just that. Belle, the daughter of an African slave and an Englishman, is taken to England after the death of her mother to live with her great-uncle who is the Chief Justice in England. While no one can say what would have happened had he not been raising a half-black child like a daughter, he would go on to make several rulings that helped to ban the atlantic slave trade. Today, interracial couples are exceedingly more common. Multiracial births are growing at the fastest rate in America--18 years from now America is going to be a lot less segregated simply because people aren't going to be Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, or whatever, they're going to be a couple of these all at once. Even today if you were to attend a family reunion with my family, you'd find people from every race (possibly why I never thought anything of people having different skin tones). So today my spotlight is on those of you celebrating valentines day with someone from a different race and those of you who get frustrated when they tell you to "choose one" box under race--it's way too many of you to tag! #BlackHistoryMonth2016 #MakeItCount #MulticulturalLove #LoveByContentNotColor

Photocredit: Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images

References

1. Theodore R. Johnson III. "When One Of New York's Glitterati Married A 'Quadroon'". Code Switch. June 7, 2014