[I first wrote this article for the Huffington Post - and since then have decided to also post in on my own blog] Dating is tricky — even more so when you don’t follow the cookie-cutter mold of what a relationship should look like. Less than 50 years ago, interracial marriage was illegal in the United States and even when the anti-miscegenation laws were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in 1967, interracial couples were harassed and discriminated against for decades. Now we live in a new, global era with more tolerance and understanding for couples that exist outside the “norms” for relationships… yet many interracial couples still attract stares. As the “white” half of a Japanese-American marriage, I noticed some of the same questions keep popping up again and again. After a quick chat with some other interracial couples, I realized my experiences were not unique. These are eight seemingly innocent questions that have deeper, darker implications for interracial couples. 1. How does your family feel about your partner’s race? Do you want the long version or the short version? Race is surprisingly difficult to talk about — you can’t just ask an interracial couple about their family’s reaction to the [...]
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