Interracial dating

[Miss_Behave]

I'm a caucasion Australian. I'm dating a Chinese Australian. People seem to stare at us a lot, maybe because of the skin difference but also maybe because of the height contrast (I'm 5"9 he's 5"5). I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced or is in a interracial relationship? I am enjoying it so much, getting to share his culture with him is a truly amazing and special thing. His family are wonderful. But it is different and people do point and stare, which suprises me as we are living in the twentifirst century and you'd think people would be over that. I dunno.. care to enlighten me with your experiences? :cool:

[kristadb]

Honestly? I think it's the height difference over the race difference. It's not often a women is taller then the man, so it always makes head turn.

:)

[Ocean]

My bf is mexican/german and I'm just a mix of european ethnicities, we don't really contrast that much so no one ever looks at us in a weird way. Actually the worst thing that someone said to us is that they thought we were brother and sister? Yuck.

[Oatmeal]

My sister: pale white blonde
Her fiancee: Nigerian.

In Vienna, the staring is unbelievable. I could try to describe, but you wouldn't believe it until you walk down the street with them. Of course, in Vienna it is assumed that black people are drug dealers :rolleyes:

[Miss_Behave]

I can't believe the staring. It's like "yeah, he's dark and I'm light.. we're going out, get over it, OK?" :rolleyes:

People can be so weird. :(

[Seusomon]

I'm white - my ex-wife is African, born and raised in Cameroon. We got a really nasty vibe a couple of times, but there were other times when we'd get positive vibes from people. Stares followed up by smiles. One waitress at a restaurant we went to a lot called us "the chicklets" - I thought that was so cute.

Stares are probably mostly curious.

Satisfy their curiosity by being unbelievably happy together. It will do the world good.

Blessings, Tom

[saborm]

My mom's black and my dad's white in colour. Staring has never been much of an issue, other than when my parents visit the US together. Funny thing is that it's usually someone that's 'black' that gives the nasty look and most 'white' people simply don't care that they're not the same colour. Around here most 'black' people are involved with someone of a different colour.

[kirkjobsluder]

Ok, this is a bit of an embarassing comment. I actively try not to stare, not because I think that these relationships are bad, unnatural or any of that, but because I've been bombarded over and over again that interracial relationships have been a big political mess. This makes me feel a bit self-consious.

[Miss_Behave]

Seusomon, we do just that. We always think we may as well give people something big to stare at so he either grabs my butt or I give him a very noisy kiss. Actually quite fun. I just don't understand the looks. :moonpie:

[Kiz]

What part of Aus do you live in? I've dated Asians (I'm a white girl too) and never found that at all. Maybe it's the public snogging? People stare at that no matter what race you are.

[monkeyandbunny]

I dated a guy in college who was born in the good ole USA, his parents were Jamaican. They moved to the USA in the early 1970s. He really loathed being called "African American" because he was not African and people assumed because of his skin color that he was "African American". He also hated the assumption that because he was black therefore he should like rap and R&B music. Actually he hated both claiming it was sell-out music that was uncreative vocal acrobatics.

He wasn't real popular with some people.

I went to college in central Indiana and yes, people did stare. If we stayed around campus and/or went to places that catered to the college crowd, we had no problems. Venturing into town was another story. People had no problems staring, pointing fingers and even making comments. I had a women pull me aside at a bar and ask... "so are they really bigger?" I replied, "you definatly couldn't handle it, "I smiled and walked away but seriously, HOW RUDE!!

[Muzicfan]

I have dated men of other racial background, and culture. I tend to find other cultures exciting, and fun to get to experience. Yes there are stares, but hey I just roll with it.

I feel they are just envious. :)

[SunnyK]

I've never been in an interracial relationship, but I'm the child of two: my white mother married a black man, and my white father married a Filipina woman. So I've experienced some of the stares at our blended family. Nothing really horrible, though, that I remember. Some things probably went over my head.

Sometimes I think I overcompensate when I see interracial couples -- they're probably thinking, "Why is that weirdo grinning at us here in the supermarket?"

I like Seusomon's take on the issue.

[borealis]

I tend to grin at interracial couples (and same sex ones, too). They must think I'm loony!

[Ama]

Originally posted by borealis
I tend to grin at interracial couples (and same sex ones, too). They must think I'm loony!

Me too!! I'm always tempted to go up to non-traditional couples and spout out a bunch of hippie nonsense like "we are all God's children!"
Once I was walking down the street and I passed these two older men who looked all gruff and bitter, and I thought they were going to make a comment about my strange, semi-punkish appearance...but then one put his arm around the other and they started being all couple-y. It was so sweet I almost "aaaw"-ed out loud. Yeah, I must have looked really crazy.

[SunnyK]

Originally posted by Ama
Me too!! I'm always tempted to go up to non-traditional couples and spout out a bunch of hippie nonsense like "we are all God's children!"
Once I was walking down the street and I passed these two older men who looked all gruff and bitter, and I thought they were going to make a comment about my strange, semi-punkish appearance...but then one put his arm around the other and they started being all couple-y. It was so sweet I almost "aaaw"-ed out loud. Yeah, I must have looked really crazy.

I "awwww'd" out loud just reading that! :D

[tearhsong2]

I've got lots of experience at it!

I'm European-American and my husband is Asian-American. I've never noticed anybody staring at us though, but that could be because I never notice that sort of thing. I could care less what other people think. ;)

It's really cool because I get to eat a lot of Asian dishes at home that taste soooo much better than what you'll get in a restaurant. I've also learned some Vietnamese (thought I'm FAR from being fluent) and have learned a lot about the culture. He and his family are learning a lot about the culture I grew up in too, along with the food I bring to family bbqs and holiday dinners (almost all of them know the language). It's all good. :D

[Flower]

I dated a vietnamese guy in high school for about a year. Suprisingly, we never got any flack from people about it, or maybe I didn't notice it if we did.

[ebola]

I, too, suspect the staring may be due to difference in height. A couple of my friends are in inter-racial couples and people hardly notice, I think. I could be a function of where you live though.

ebola

[shewolf]

Miss_behave, I seem to recall you live in the same city as me...

I think it's the height and the snogging. We have so many Asian people in SEQ that Asian-Caucasian relationships are everywhere. You may get the odd idiot but generally I doubt it's to do with race... maybe if he was black (more because they are a minority, I know I tend to stare at black men as they tend to be so hot LOL) but not Asian.