Colorblind Love Essay -- Pesronal Narrative Ethnicity Racism Papers

Colorblind LoveI met my wife Aretha in the fall of 1997 she had just moved from Portland, Oregon, to my hometown of Portland, Maine. By Christmas we were dating, and before we knew it we were both graduating and verandah to Boston for college. Were now happily married and have a one-year-old baby girl. It sounds like a classic high school sweetheart romance, right-hand(a)? Well, to us, yes. But to many people, were different. These peoples views have nothing to do with our love, our relationship, or our daughter. They have to do with race. Yes, Im lecture about the mere color of our skin. My wife is Black and I am White. Were both Americans, born on the same soil and raised in spite of appearance the same language and popular cultureall variables are equal except for our skin color. Yet many people see us as two entirely different types of people who do not belong together, as if Cupids arrows discriminate. Have these bigots ever bo in that respectd us? Of course, weve been affec ted in some ways. But overall, we thank them for their ignorance, as our relationship has only grown stronger. For instance, if were at the mall and a few people stare at us or point in our direction, we smile and wrap our arms around each other even tighter. A major reason we watch stares and assume special status is not only because of peoples views, but also because we are relatively rare. Slavery was abolished almost 140 age ago and our own parents witnessed the civil rights movement of the 1960s. So why do interracial marriages still only account for 2.9 percent of all American marriages concord to the latest U.S. Census data? Or more specifically, why do Black/White couples like Aretha and me account for only 0.7 percent? Of course there is no simple answer ... ... will approach melting pot status the blender will grind the vegetables. If my grandchildren ever have to write a paper like this, my hope is that it will document success and the achievement of real racial equal ity. Works CitedRandall Kennedy, Interracial Intimacies Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption, Pantheon Books, 2003 Maria Root, Loves transition Interracial Marriage, Temple University Press, 2001 Maria Root, The Color of Love, The American Prospect, 8 Apr. 2002 Michael Lind, Far From Heaven, The Nation, 16 Jun. 2003Regan Good, Questions for Randall Kennedy Color Dynamics, New York Times Magazine, 9 Feb. 2003 Racial Patterns Across the coupled States, Society, Nov./Dec. 2001 United States Census Bureau, Interracial Married Couples, 12 Jun 2003, http//www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/ tabMS-3.pdf.