“A recent study showed that around half of all British Caribbean men in a relationship have a
Mixed-race relationships are lending a hand in contributing to Britain’s increasingly racially integrated culture. Laura Scougall looks at some facts about interracial relationships, what she feels she has gained from life as a person of mixed-race and some of the problems that can be involved with a dual heritage. Being brought up in a mixed-race family never seemed strange or peculiar to me. I was lucky. Living in a racially diverse area of Northern England, my parents were open to different races and cultures; in turn they ensured that my siblings and I never bestowed prejudice on anyone just because they were ‘different’. I guess that’s the reason behind why I haven’t experienced any racism towards myself, well, that I’m aware of anyway. I mean, you know how people can be so sneaky about their true feelings nowadays, the person you sit next to on the bus could feel disgusted just because of the colour of your skin, or hate the fact that you wear a turban and dared to sit yourself next to them. Sometimes you just don’t know. Other people however are not as lucky as I am. Many other mixed-race people that I have met and gotten to know over the years have expressed to me their problems that include feelings of belonging to a ‘full’ race, or their lack of it. I believe one of the reasons behind why they feel that way is because of the way they were brought up; perhaps they spent the majority
have always been a cause for deep discussion, many being for them but at the same time many are against the idea. Relationships between different races are no different than those of relationships belonging to the same race. However there could be issues within the partnership with faith and cultural traditions that may cause tension and discomfort between family members. It was only in 1967 when interracial marriage became legalized in the United States, which isn’t a very long time ago if you think about it, and since then the number of mixed-race marriages has more or less doubled with each passing decade worldwide; that number is forecasted to continue rising. My parents went through a lot of discrimination when they first became an item, back in the early 1980’s. It is only human nature to greet change with a hostile or disagreeable attitude and that is what my parents received by a lot of so-called friends and even family in the early days of their relationship. Many thought they wouldn’t last, that the ethnic differences would be too different to live with, but they overcame it, and it looks to me as though many others have done the same in more recent years. In fact a recent study showed that around half of all British Caribbean men in a relationship have a partner from a different race, with one in ten Indian men and women and two out of five Chinese women. The survey also stated that one in five children belongs
or were only ever with one parent and so to an ethnic minority group, which is far higher than partner from ofweretheirnottime introduced or had a lack of knowledge about among the adult population. I personally believe that the the other side of their culture. My mother, a British-born in interracial relationships is being more widely a different Jamaican woman has always told my brothers and I that increase accepted today. we are mixed-race, society as we know it will Take, for instance, President Barrack Obama. race, with although always class us as being black people, which was simply He is a man of mixed-race, although the world calls him to the shade of our skin. At the time I didn’t really a ‘Black President’, he is still accepted as a leader. Is this one in ten down grasp any understanding of what she was trying to a sign of good things to come for mixed-race people in to us or even care for that matter because I was general, especially those that receive only negativity Indian men explain quite young. I didn’t see anyone as being different to me from others about who they are? of their race, but looking back now I understand Maybe with more and more people getting and women because why she said what she did. However I don’t think that into these mixed partnerships, there is the possibility is the case today; maybe it was that way in the that future generations will not see race in the way and two this past, I really would not know, but I have and always will that so many of us see it today. What if the majority of out of five be proud of my heritage, so I guess I will never find it the world became partially mixed in some way? Could a problem. I tick the mixed box when filling out this lead to people leading a more accepting attitude? Chinese tomybeethnicity on forms so as far as I’m concerned, I’m Who knows? Although slim it seems that there could be classed as mixed-race, not black and not white. chance racism will die down or die out altogether in the women. “ I have to ask the question: Why do we all have future. Now I am not saying that I think the entire world to be classed by our race? Not only race but our gender, sexuality, religion and so on. By classing people into different groups, does that not make them seem alien to others, especially when they’re described as a minority group? My father on the other hand is mixed himself, of Scottish and Italian descent but British born. He classes himself as a white man and certainly looks that way. He has always ensured that my siblings and I knew all about our heritage from both sides as he felt it was important for us to know where we came from as well as knowing where we were born and bred. Throughout history interracial relationships
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should become mixed-race, I myself actually think that - to put it bluntly – boring. I love the variety of people there are in life and if that means mixing and matching different races then why not? Everyone is entitled to be with whomever he or she wishes to be with, it may cause conflict at times but if someone truly loves that person and they are not hurting anybody then they should go for it. My parents did, setting a fine example for me to follow. I don’t know who I’ll end up with, but one thing I know for certain is that I won’t be limiting my options to just one type of person. If my parents had given into their peers, my siblings and I wouldn’t be here, so I for one am glad they didn’t!