The Rocky Mountain Collegian

February 27th, 2007

Interracial Dating

Recently, with Black History Month and the Holocaust Remembrance site on the CSU campus (it is located near Clark C in the green-composed of different colored flags) the subject of racism, racial stereotypes, and social race divides has been brought to the forefront of my mind.  Where I’m from, the East Coast, specifically Massachusetts, racism isn’t quite as prominent as it is here in the Midwest.  On the East Coast, people are more socially divided by monetary means, while it seems in the Midwest people are more socially divided by race.  It’s quite easy to see this on the CSU campus.  The Blacks hang with the Blacks, the Asians with the Asians, and the Middle Easterners with the Middle Easterners…you get my point.  We have all these organizations that foster the developments of these different ethnic groups, but I ask myself in the end do these organizations help foster these racial divides, consequently widening these said social gaps?       

Anyways, all of this racial mumbo-jumbo that has been floating around in my brain, made me think of the subject of interracial dating.  For those of you that don’t know, interracial dating is when two people from different races, such as a black man and a white woman date.  Pretty self-explanatory right?  From personal experience, being as I am biracial myself (half Kenyan, half French, Dutch, German) I have encountered some not-so-blatant bigotry while dating a person of another race (primarily white men).  At some restaurants I have gotten weird stares, but nothing big; No one has ever said anything to me about it. 

On the contrary, recently at a Pepper Concert in Denver (which was awesome by the way) my white guy friend (who shall remain nameless) overheard some fellow concert goers (guys of course) commenting on the fact that he was with a black girl (moi)-they thought we were “together”.  I’m not going to pretend I heard the whole conversation, my guy friend wouldn’t tell me the details because he didn’t want to make me upset, but I got the jist of what they were saying by the level of irritation in his voice (he was livid, by the way).  I’m really glad he didn’t tell me that night, I was pretty intoxicated and I probably would have started crying or worse started talking shit and maybe consequently throwing some punches.  I am not a violent person, and I have never gotten into a fight, but racism is definitely my breaking point; I hate it and I won’t stand for it, especially in this day and age.

Another semi-recent experience I had (this was in Steamboat Springs-where I currently reside when not on campus), was this summer when a known bigot and criminal by the name of “Big Al” said some extremely racist things to my brother and me.  He called my brother the n-word and his friends n**ger lovers.  He even called my ex-boyfriend one night and asked him, “Why are you dating a n**ger chick anyway?”  That wasn’t even the half of it, but that’s not the point.  The funny part was that “Big Al” listened to gangster rap, wore baggy clothes (made by companies owned by black execs-FUBU, Rocawear, etc.), and talked like he was from the Bronx (and people if you’ve ever been to Steamboat you know that it is definitely no ghetto), but he WAS STILL RACIST!  And it’s not just him (he IS an extreme version) but many people seem to hail all things black (music, clothes, sports stars, etc.) but when it comes down to dating someone of another race they find it “weird”.  And personally I find that weird.  How can you be so immersed in a culture but find the people of that culture not up to your “status”? Isn’t that somewhat hypocritical?

Something truly amusing I’ve found when I’m meeting guys at parties,  we’ll be talking and sometimes I’ll get that he’s not interested because I’m black; but, the minute they see my green eyes and find out I’m half white it’s like voila! A totally different impression is made and now they’re all about me.  What is that!??  This is what I imagine going on in their heads: “Hey, look at her, she’s pretty cute, but I’m not really into black girls.” Time goes by, conversation happens. “Wow, she has green eyes, I wonder what ethnicity she is.”  More time goes by.  “Cool, she’s half white and has green eyes; that’s hot because she’s all exotic looking like those hot Brazilian Victoria’s Secret models.”  Personally I find it funny, but inside it still hurts me a little.  Knowing that someone doesn’t like me because of the color of my skin, not my character or personality or even what I am wearing, but because of a color on my skin that I can’t change (not that I would ever want to) is like a slap in the face.

And finally there are the guys who find it “adventurous” and “exciting” to date a person of another race.  They imagine that guys and girls of different races can be better and crazier in bed

(For example: Latin lovers).   Or they seriously believe the stereotypes of certain races, like all black men are “packing (wouldn’t that be nice girls?). Anyways, if it were true, don’t you think all black men would have girls chasing after them all the time and the rest of the male population would be left high and dry? Now THAT would be interesting. 

For my next blog I will be conducting a little survey to test my theories out about the stereotypes that surround interracial dating (and also just to satisfy my burning curiosity).  I’ll be passing out the surveys in the LSC and all around campus so please pick one up and give me your 2 cents! I would be happy to have your feedback.

Till next time….

Alex

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Fort Chick Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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