When mixed marriages are considered the cause, family feuds, suicide and even murder can be the effect. Biracial children have been the target of verbal missiles armed with any one of the 2,649 racial slurs found in the English language. In spite of this, interracial marriages have doubled since 1980, according to a Pew Research study, with 15% of all new US marriages being ethnically mixed. It is time to deal with the fact that we are living in the age of the biracial Romeo and Juliet.
Several years ago, an attractive black female invited me, a known conservative, to give the invocation at an NAACP event. When my grandmother met Tameka, her eyes widened and her knitting needles ground to a halt in fear we would date – not due to Tameka’s liberal activist ways, mind you, but because of her chocolate coloring.
As a youngster, it was from Grandma that I first learned the most common objection to mixed marriages – salt & pepper pairings are “hard on the children.” I should have asked if marrying a white chain-smoker like herself would have been preferable – but the EPA hadn’t yet documented the dangers of secondhand smoke on little ones, so it didn’t yet cross my ten-year-old mind.
The second most common niggle I’ve heard is that “it’s against the Bible.” Quote me chapter and verse, my friend, for scripture only forbids a believer from being “unequally yoked” to an unbeliever. The Bible simply doesn’t concern itself with color coordinating marriages – God is not Martha Stewart.
Many hide behind such concerns as a smokescreen in an attempt to color the truth – they struggle with racism but can’t admit it. I don’t know anyone who wants to admit being a bigot, so I’ve devised a colorful quiz to help you determine if you are a racist in denial.
Rank the parings below from most objectionable to least objectionable: a) Asian with a Caucasian, b) African American with a Caucasian, c) Chinese with a Korean, d) Latino with a Caucasian, e) Gypsy with an Albanian.
If you showed no personal preference…congratulations – consider yourself knighted with the sword of racial tolerance. If you showed any preference at all, you would probably feel more comfortable at a weenie roast with the Klu Klux Klan than eating chitlins and gravy with Jesse Jackson.
It’s funny that I’ve never met a non-Asian who has had “mixed emotions” about Koreans marrying Chinese, “after all, they look close enough alike.” Whether it’s Koreans mixing with Chinese or Gypsies with Albanians, many in these cultures see such marriages as a big no-no. Most folks only get their knickers in a bunch when someone is “marrying one of their own.”
Racist double standards are not unusual. Visualize a black man dating a white woman. The same white male who fears “once a woman goes black, she’ll never go back,” is probably concerned he wouldn’t measure up, so to speak, even though he would likely jump at the chance to corral a stunning black beauty like actress Halle Berry if given the opportunity.
To those who would discourage a mixed-race couple from getting married “for the sake of the children,” any discomfort caused by mommy and daddy looking different will probably pale in comparison to the pain your misguided love could inflict on the couple.
Maybe kissing a big-lipped black man or making love to a Mexican is not your cup of tea, Grandma, and that’s okay. But if I ever do get “jungle fever,” we both know you will surely love those multi-colored rainbow babies anyway.