Interracial Dating- a personal persepctive

In the information age where much of the world is connected electronically and physically with the ease of travel, we’re coming into contact with people of different races and cultures more than ever before. We can’t control who we fall in love with, so stands to reason that you’re more likely to fall in love with someone from a different race than anyone in your family before you. As this site has pointed out, dating outside your species (vamps, ghosts, merman etc) can be easier with tips, so here’s some tips about dating outside your race.

Racism can be a real issue, and how bad it will be for the two of you depends on where you live. I’ve been dating my African girlfriend for four years and we live in Queensland, Australia. It’s not quite as accepting as some places we have travelled to, like England for instance. People often stare at us when we walk down the street, which admittedly can be funny if they’re driving. I’ve seen people just about fender bender the person in front of them because they were too busy staring at us and not keeping their eyes on the road. We stop traffic!

I’ve heard people make comments about my partner when we’re on public transport, which is silly if you think about it. When you’re the only black person on the bus it’s not hard to figure out which black person people are talking about. The worst instance of racism we experienced was when a man screamed at me in the middle of the street for “betraying Australia” by dating an African girl. Even a few African friends of mine tell me they would never date outside their race because their family would never accept it.

Racism can be hard because you can’t control other people’s behaviour. My tip would be to simply ignore such people. It can put stress on you and your partner, so we don’t pretend it doesn’t happen, but we try not to let small minded people get under our skin.

The second major issue is culture clash. It might sound trivial until you run into one, but both of you have to understand you were raised in two different cultures, and there will be some things you find hard to understand. For example, my partner comes from a culture that puts a much higher emphasis on family bonds than most western cultures, and I have to accept that I won’t understand that completely. In my experience, arguments thrive off miscommunication and miscommunication thrives off ignorance. My tip would be to try to keep an open mind and be prepared to compromise.

That’s the best advice I can give to anyone on interracial dating. Good luck out there, and don’t let small minds control your heart.

Please leave me a comment if you’d like to share your experiences.

Kade Morton is a Brisbane based author writing graphic novels, manga, short stories, reviews and political articles. He has a BA in Criminology from Griffith University as well as having studied at Keele University in the United Kingdom. After discovering Ghost in the Shell, Kade became a huge anime fan, and the only genre in any format that rivals this love is urban fantasy. He dreams of contributing to the urban fantasy literature base with his own projects in the near future, and you can view his blog here.