Opposal to interracial relationships.

Do you think someone can have opposition to interracial relationships without being a racist? Even if you aren't opposed to interracial relationships per se; do you think that people should – generally – be prone to seeking out relationships with folks of their racial or ethnic group in order to better preserve its traditions and/or sense of community?

How would your family react if you became seriously involved with someone who wasn't of your racial/ethnic group? Would they be totally fine with it, be tolerant/cordial (but not thrilled), or would they oppose it?

I think a person could steer clear of interracial relationships and not be racist. I wouldn't want to get serious with a man who had strong ties to his home country because I would be very scared of having kids and then him fleeing the US with them. I know it is the stuff movies are made of, but there have been a lot of cases where that has happened.

My dad would not like it at all if I dated outside my race. I dated a Puerto Rican guy for a while, and had had we gotten serious, I would have had a very hard time telling my dad.

Chris wrote:Do you think someone can have opposition to interracial relationships without being a racist?

Yes. But I think it depends on how strong that opposition is.

Even if you aren't opposing to interracial relationships per se; do you think that people should – generally – be prone to seeking out relationships with folks of their racial or ethnic group in order to better preserve its traditions and/or sense of community?

Yes.

How would your family react if you became seriously involved with someone who wasn't of your racial/ethnic group? Would they be totally fine with it, be tolerant/cordial (but not thrilled), or would they oppose it?

They'd be fine with it.

Well, when my mom married my dad (Japanese; he adopted me) back in '72, neither side of the family was cool with it. My grandparents were young people during WWII and there was racial tension. However, they got over it, and my Japanese grandpa mused late in his life that he never thought it would be his white daughter-in-law who took care of him when he became infirm. I'm not sure if my white grandpa ever actually stopped being a racist, but he treated my dad and my dad's family cordially. I think my grandmothers were far less racist than their husbands.

I knew a woman once....she'd be close to 70 now if she'd lived....who was not a racist, per se, but didn't think that people of different races should have children together because the kids would be "lost" and not have racial identity to cling to.

My dad died 13 years ago and my mom has dated several guys, none of them white. I don't have any siblings and my other relatives are few and distant. Nobody would care who I end up with as long as he treats me well.

And really...I'm Irish/Scottish/German/English in ancestry. My ancestors have been in the United States for hundreds of years, having arrived here in the 16th and 17th centuries. Any traditions/customs they brought with them are long gone. I can't see what I'd be "preserving" by staying with my race, seeing as I'm an American with American customs.

Chris wrote:Do you think someone can have opposition to interracial relationships without being a racist?

No. So many like to perceive racism as this black/white game of overt feelings of inferiority/superiority, or hatred, when the truth is that it's more layered than that. "Closet racists," who are perfectly nice, reasonable people who are nice to all humans, decide that they don't HATE other races, and this gives them justification to pretend they are not racist. But racism is, among other things, the belief that people should be treated in ways based on the color of their skin.

If someone opposes the idea that people from different races should intermix, then they are racist. Plain and simple. Doesn't mean they have to do it themselves, but if their feelings against it are strong enough that it goes beyond what they would personally do and crosses over into a worldview, then that makes a statement.

Even if you aren't opposed to interracial relationships per se; do you think that people should – generally – be prone to seeking out relationships with folks of their racial or ethnic group in order to better preserve its traditions and/or sense of community?

No again. Someone doesn't have to cohabitate with someone of the same extraction in order to remain connected to their culture or heritage.

How would your family react if you became seriously involved with someone who wasn't of your racial/ethnic group? Would they be totally fine with it, be tolerant/cordial (but not thrilled), or would they oppose it?

I dated a black girl in college. No one openly opposed or said anything blatant, but a handful were nervous about what they should and shouldn't say and sometimes obviously chose their words more carefully.

I think someone straying away from a certain race or religous beliefs is a racist. IMO people are people no matter their color, ethnic background or religious belief. My best friend was telling me her daughter started to date someone african american and her father was furious. That just doesn't make any sense to me. People are who they are in the inside.

2xy wrote:...And really...I'm Irish/Scottish/German/English in ancestry. My ancestors have been in the United States for hundreds of years, having arrived here in the 16th and 17th centuries. Any traditions/customs they brought with them are long gone. I can't see what I'd be "preserving" by staying with my race, seeing as I'm an American with American customs.

Yeah, that racial preservation is pure bullshit.

My wife and I were Americans. She was as "African-American" as I was "French-American." Neither of us had any real connection to the cultures of 200 years ago.

Her family was from Chicago and Louisiana, mine was from St. Louis and Mississippi. We came from the same cultural background.

Like most of you, I think that if you oppose marrying outside of your race, that makes you racist. Love is more important than colour.

sailorlover wrote:I think someone straying away from a certain race or religous beliefs is a racist. IMO people are people no matter their color, ethnic background or religious belief.

Religion and race have nothing to do with each other.

Would you befriend or date one of those folks from the Westboro Baptist Church? You know....the ones who picket military funerals?