Love is and should be colorblind!  Adults arguably could learn a lot from children.  The subject of this blog concerns interracial relationships.    This topic is not unique to America.  It has been written on previously by other scribes.  Because one marries another from another race, does not mean and should not mean that they lose their ability to advocate for justice for their ethnic heritage of birth and for all people.   One never ceases being who they are due to the union God joins together.  The myths and stereotypes must be eradicated if we are to progress as a people. 

There are many myths that surround interracial relationships.  Some I have heard are:

“He just married her to get back at the White man.” 

“You know, Black men might marry a woman from a different ethnic background, but he always has a Black woman on the side.”

“Don’t you think you should wait to marry Black?”

We should not stop fighting for justice and doing what is right.  It is irrelevant whom a person married.  Great potential contributions could be made and gleaned from those who marry outside their race, if they were not so easily discounted because of their mate choice.  Skeptical?  Unsure if this is still not an issue?  Well, go no further than the uproar and controversy of the interracial family on the Cheerios commercial.  It is amazing that this is still a topic of concern in 2014. 

Malcolm X spoke on this subject in 1965 in an interview with Pierre Berton, and opined:

“I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither White, Black, Brown, nor Red.  When you are dealing with humanity as one family, there’s no question of integration or intermarriage.  It’s just one human being marrying another human being.  I may say though, that I don’t think the burden to defend any such position should ever be put upon the Black man.  Because it is the White man who has shown that he is hostile towards integration and towards intermarriage and towards other strides toward oneness.”  

Being in an interracial marriage myself, I have friends who see it as a non-issue and others who don’t know me and have greeted me with stares and glares.  We need to get to know one another and stop making assumptions.  We cannot read the heart and mind of another human being.  Mark Mathabane and his wife Gail Mathabane wrote a book on the subject of interracial marriage entitled: Love in Black and White: The Triumph of Love Over Prejudice and Taboo.

Mark Mathabane wrote on the subject in 1992 and similarly to Malcolm X, related:

“Racism is essentially a problem of the heart.  Pervert the human heart, which was made to feel and to love and to care, and you get cancers like racism and injustice.  If in our hearts we truly accept one another as fellow human beings, many of our intractable problems would have solutions, and there would be no limit to the good we could do in making our world a better place for all.”

Your thoughts?

© tonia renee lee April 6, 2014

References

Mathabane, M. and Mathabane G.  (1992). Love in Black and White: The Triumph of Love Over Prejudice and Taboo.  New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Richardson, N., Chermayfee, C., and White, A.  eds.  (1992). Malcolm X Speaks Out.  Kansas City, KS: Andrews and McMeel.