Love Across the Color Line

I was hysterically crying. My body was shaking, my lips were trembling, and my nose was running. Emotions swirled around in my head like a twister. I opened my eyes and saw the person who was making me act this way. His clear, caramel complexion warmed his entire face which expressed a look of dire concern. It was the first time I had seen him in months and this was my way of saying “I missed you.” His long, dark fingers ran over my ivory cheeks and I knew at that moment that this was how being in love made me. We made a silent promise right then to be with each other unconditionally, but I knew we had some huge obstacles ahead, our races being one of them. Many people in the United States have a huge problem with whites and blacks getting together. The love between my boyfriend and I, as well as many other interracial couples is proof that interracial dating is far from wrong and it should be treated no different than two people of the same race .

As recently as 1967, a black person marrying a white person was illegal in at least sixteen states of the United States. Because of the Loving Decision, a ruling made by the U.S. Supreme Court, these laws have been overturned and people are free to date and marry whom they like without punishment. Because only thirty years have passed since interracial dating was viewed in such a negative light, individuals who engage in cross-cultural romantic relations might still find that some of their peers view them as morally wrong through a closed mind (Wilkinson 19, 22.)

There are many reasons why interracial dating should be welcomed. The first and most important reason is also the most obvious one. Everyone is human and skin color does not matter. Interracial relationships also last longer and tend to create a stronger bond between the individuals involved in them because of the adversity that they are presented with(Erhardt 5.) There are also health benefits to interracial mating. Genetically, the offspring of a black-white relationship is prone to have stronger genes (Interracial Marriage: Salter’s Fantasy, 3) These are only a few reasons why interracial dating is good for society.

A person’s race is a very important part of who they are. It is not, however, something that defines the validity of a union. No one is better than anyone else, and the color of one’s skin should never be the basis of how a person is treated. My father once told me “if God wanted people of different races to get together then He would have never created races in the first place.” Although I love and respect my father, this is one of the most ignorant comments I have ever heard in my life. Love is not defined by color, but by a bond that is way deeper than just skin deep. For the most part, a person cannot help the way they look. Why would anyone else hold that against them? The fact that “we are all the same color when we turn off the lights” should make people realize skin color is a trivial aspect when considering a relationship.

It has been proven in studies that interracial unions last longer than those of the same race. Although a same race marriage is less likely to be frowned upon by family, friends, and society as a whole, a black-white couple hardly takes anything for granted, especially each other (Dalmage, 25). The reason for the longevity of these relationships is because people going into interracial marriages are prepared for a rocky road and stick with it, while same- race couples may have not experienced that same adversity and, at the first sign of struggle, back out of the marriage. Interracial couples making their union last is a slap in the face to most critics, because they are doing what those who disapprove hate- being in love interracially. These relationships also seem to have more depth. Because of the problems blacks and whites face, they bond on an non-platonic level.

Interracial relations between blacks and whites make our country’s future extremely bright. If people of all ethnicities continue to mix among each other, in a few hundred years the distinction between black and white people will be blurred to the extent that it would eliminate any race-related issues. Effectively, we’d all be caramel. As a more specific benefit, the offspring of interracial mating are likely to avoid genetic diseases arising from homozygous harmful recessive genes found mainly in particular groups, such as cystic fibrosis in Europeans and sickle-cell anemia in West Africans. Not only would our colors mix, but our health would improve. This is something that is already happening and may in fact be inevitable.

Some African-Americans in the United States argue that interracial relationships are wrong because they feel that it will eventually destroy the “Black Community” and give them less voting power (Erhardt, 1.) However, now that citizens can check more than one box when filling out the U.S. Census