I am an Asian American woman and if I want to have lunch with my caucasian boyfriend, would you kindly not stare at us?
It’s 2018.
Interracial couples have been the norm for decades. The 1967 Loving vs. Virginia Supreme Court case determined that punishing people for marrying outside their race was unconstitutional.
Yet, the stare’s remain. Older generations have pointed out “how good things used to be back in the day” when interracial couples were considered taboo. Yet, nearly everywhere we look nowadays, people of different colors, cultures and creeds are pairing up, dating, marrying and having children.
Interracial couples are beneficial to understanding another person’s culture, which can possibly lead to the end of racism if we let it.
My boyfriend knew nothing about Cambodian and Lao culture before dating me. My family and I exposed him to a whole other world which he passed onto his family. The culture share starts with something as simple as food, but move on to traditions. My boyfriend’s family joins us for family blessings now – something he never did before we began dating seven years ago.
My boyfriend’s family was mostly accepting of my ethnicity.
Still, I can’t control the looks and the sighs of disgust we get when my boyfriend and I walk past a person who doesn’t share my more modern views. What I can control is how I can educate those around me.
When I first met my boyfriend’s great grandmother, I felt she was uncomfortable with the relationship. She was never mean to me. There was a bridge to gap, though.
Throughout the years when we would have conversations it would be no longer than a minute. Now, though, she considers me like family.
I told her about my culture and the history of my people.
Whenever something was said I didn’t agree on I made sure she knew, vice versa. The conversations, though, were never hostile.
We speak about how we want to end racism and how we are all the same. We share collective views as a society – until a real-life “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” moment happens and we walk through the door with a partner of another color.
My extended family thought I would be better off if I was with an Asian man, mainly out of misconception and fear. I was disappointed in them for telling me this.
We already got enough judgment from people we didn’t know for being Asian, even in a city where a large population is Asian American, so I wasn’t expecting my family to pass judgment on a person off the color of their skin.
I asked how they would feel if his family never accepted me because I want my people to be accepted into this world.
People say they want racism to end but still want to segregate when it comes to dating our sons and daughters. I feel like this shouldn’t be said because it should already be known: Don’t judge because of color.
We are in a new era where all races and genders can love one another.
