Does Race Matter in Relationships?

Race is a subject that is highly talked about, highly avoided, and highly important. People say that race doesn't matter, but I disagree. Race is everything. It's the platform for which everything in our society is known. It's the reason why we see still wage gaps and unevenness in positions of power. At its core, race is nothing but skin pigment, however it is because of this skin pigment that our country has faced centuries of oppression and turmoil. Race is a topic that can be discussed many ways and countless times, but being that I am a college student and I tend to surround myself with people of my age, I wanted to focus on the issue of interracial relationships. Not only am I curious about how my generation views interracial relationships, but also how their views differ or compare to their parents' views on interracial relationships.

Me, Asian

 

Me, African American

 



Before I begin, I want to give a brief history of my experience with race. I grew up with a liberal family on my mom's side, and a traditional, southern family on my dad's side. This makes for an interesting dynamic because my mom always taught me acceptance of all people, while my dad was, and still is racially prejudiced. Even though I've been aware of my dad's prejudices, I always had the mindset that race didn't matter. This caused issues when I started dating. Not only did my dad have strong racial prejudices, but he especially didn't want his daughter to date outside of her race. Being the open-minded person that I am, I dated a few African American guys, even knowing that my dad had his issues. I know this really bothered him, but to me, race wasn't an issue. Fast forwarding to today my dad still has his racial prejudices, and I think he always will. One day however, I was talking to him on the phone about my opinion that he has "modernized" in certain ways within the last few years. He replied by saying, "I realized after the first few guys that you brought home that I was either going to have to accept it, or lose my daughter. Losing you wasn't an option, so I adjusted." It's not necessarily the response I would have hoped for, but I realized at that moment that we are from different generations, and although he has become more accepting, other people may have the same situation as myself with the generation gap between them and their parents.



Me, Hispanic

 

Me, Indian

 

With this in mind, I set out to figure out what students at Avila University, along with their parents think about interracial dating. I knew that asking specific people about their experiences might be too personal because race is still a touchy subject in some ways. Instead, I created a three-question poll where each person could respond to the questions with a yes or no answer. Their identity wasn't disclosed, and I just represented each person's response with a tally mark. I also tried to get a diverse group of people to get the most accurate findings. I surveyed 18 people. The first question was simply, "Are your parents accepting of interracial relationships?" The second question was, "Are you accepting of interracial relationships?" The last question was, "Do you think that our generation is more accepting of interracial relationships than our parents?" My results found that 11 out of 18 people think their parents are accepting of interracial relationships, 17 out of 18 people are accepting of interracial relationships, and 16 out of 18 people think that our generation is more accepting of interracial relationships than their parents. My findings weren't what I was expecting, but they still show there are differences between our generation and our parents.

Me, Middle Eastern



I would love to believe that race doesn't matter in the eyes of Americans today, because I think society would be much better off if we would stop looking at our differences and embrace our similarities. The only thing I can feel confident about is that my generation is becoming more open-minded and willing to create change than our parents. Whether it's an issue of interracial dating, wage disparities, or positions of power, racism is racism. It is not until we change our history that we will be able to change our future.