Interracial relationships: love is love

Published 5 years ago -


Nisreen Yatim

staff writer

Two weeks ago, I hosted an ALANA meeting, which takes place every Thursday from 6:30-8:00pm in Hagan Hall. The acronym ALANA stands for African Latino Asian and Native American. My meeting focused on interracial relationships, and I wanted to have an honest and open conversation with our general members about it. I wanted to speak on a topic that I have personally experienced and that I knew other students could relate to.

In the late 90’s, interracial relationships and marriages increased tremendously. Breaking the barrier of race limitations on marriage has come a long way. The strong ideas that people should only be marrying within their own race are due to long-term customs. The idea that mixing relations with someone of a different race is more commonly normalized and supported nowadays. People have begun to realize that mixing races is not something that is looked down upon like it used to be.

Before recently, being with someone that is not within your same race was something that people did not do because they would be looked at differently by society. Couples like Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, have helped pushed the boundaries of normalizing interracial relationships. Their celebrity platform has allowed more people to see interracial relationships as more common than not. Famous people have the ability to make an impact on people’s lives, so seeing that they are in interracial relationships encourages others to be with people that they love regardless of their skin tone.

A huge controversy was the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle due to her being half white and half black. It was a big deal to people all over the world, especially the royal family because of the history of past marriages in the family. Compared to the public and others making her race a big deal, the Queen of England handled it in a respectful manner and welcomed Markle with open and loving arms. It is sad that people made her race such a big deal, but it brought attention to interracial relationships and how love has no limitations, not even to the royal family.

Love is a beautiful thing and it should be experienced and shared with everyone. Assumption College is a campus where everyone should feel safe and able to love whoever they want and feel proud about it. Times have really changed and in this aspect, for the better.

Nisreen Yatim, a senior, studies Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies. She is a staff writer for Le Provocateur.

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