Racism still surrounds interracial marriages by Theodore Corbin

Racism still surrounds interracial marriages
By Theodore Corbin

Luis Mireles '89 makes a legitimate point in his letter ["Gay men deserve dignity and respect," May 5]. I think that tolerance should be shown to people who are not harming anyone else and who are merely living their own lifestyle.
Mireles says we should not forget "that it was not too long ago when interracial marriages were viewed by many people as disgusting and revolting." Such things have not become a thing of the past. Such bigotry is alive and well today, whether the media or we ourselves admit it or not. I know because my paternal grandparents are an interracial couple. Being their grandson, I have for many years been the target of racism from people who try to impose their warped, ignorant, racist ideas relating to interracial families on myself and my family.
The first question that people usually ask me after they find out that I am mulatto (part black) is which of my grandparents is black. There is a vicious double standard in this country which says that it is all right for white men to have relationships with women of color, but it is totally unacceptable for men of color, particularly black men, to have relationships with white women. Since many people believe this lie, they believe also that my grandfather, who is black, has "taken" a white woman to be his wife because "white women are more attractive than black women."
Attitudes such as these overwhelm me with a feeling of complete disgust. And the media in this country is actually hypocritical enough to get mad at black leaders when they try to instill in black people a pride in themselves which they deserve to have. These leaders have said that black women are as beautiful as any other women and black men who chase only white women are not doing the black community any good. These things are perfectly true. Black men who honestly believe that white women are superior looking to black women are, like it or not, perpetuating the vile racist ideas which have wreaked untold suffering on black people in this country for centuries. To call pleas to stop such vile ignorance "racism" is to embrace the status quo, which I can assure you is not one of respect and tolerance, but one of hypocrisy, deception, and closet racism.
I do not mind relationships between black men and Caucasian women, but such a relationship must take place between people who have a mutual respect for one another and who do not believe the twisted, perverse lies that this culture promotes about the nature of such relationships. Intolerance of interracial marriages is not a thing of the past, it is a problem which must be dealt with in the future.

Theodore A. Corbin