Interracial couples----white and black

Until recently, the phrase "interracial couple" usually meant one thing: a Black man and a White woman. Not today. As evidenced by these recent real-life personal ads online, all across the country there's a brand-new wave washing over our traditional notions about interracial love.
Like it or not, no longer is it just Sidney Poitier coming to call on Katharine Hepburn's daughter. On the eve of the 21st century, guess who's coming to dinner now?Alfre Woodard and Roderick Spencer. Whoopi Goldberg and Eddie Gold. Diahann Carroll and Vic Damone. Shadoe and Beverly Stevens. Opal Stone and Ron Perlman. Anne-Marie Johnson and Marty Grey. Deniece Williams and Brad Westering. Leslie Uggams and Grahame Pratt.To our surprise,most of them met on dating website online.
To be sure, all of these couples are members of the Hollywood glitterati. But make no mistake about it, this is much more than the latest new-wave celebrity trend. The fact is, interracial love and marriage are touching the lives of everyday working Black women. Take a look at the statistics. Government figures confirm that the number of Black women marrying White men is both substantial and growing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Census, in 1987 there were 56,000 Black women married to White men. That's 11,000 more than were married to White men at the decade's beginning in 1980. Interestingly and provocatively, many of the White man involved are formulating their own definition of beauty, even when it goes against traditional White standards. Many are choosing beautiful Black women who don't look like Lena Horne, not to mention Marilyn Monroe and Brooke Shields.
Issues of professional parity aside, experts agree with Barbara Miles, publisher of Chocolate Singles, the publication in which the above personal ads appeared, that a primary factor behind the increase can be summed up in a single word: opportunity. "More and more I am meeting and talking with Black women who tell me they are dating White," says Ms. Miles. "Each has uniquely personal reasons for her decision, but opportunity certainly seems to be a major factor. Only recently have Black women been able to enter the workforce as professionals. Consequently, they're interacting with White men on a whole new level--as peers, as equals. Often such interaction leads to a kind of chemistry that just doesn't respect racial barriers."
Some of the how-we-met stories of Black women bear out Ms. Miles. Shirley Carozza, 52, a budget executive with the federal government in Washington, D.C., met her 36-year-old husband of three years, Michael, a social security police executive, on the job. "Michael was a presidential management intern working in the Social Security Budget Office, and I was a budget officer," recalls Shirley. "He came to SSA from the Senate Budget Committee where things were done quite differently. So he would always call me with a million questions. One day he just said, 'Look, anyone who could be so patient with me has to be a wonderful person' and invited me to lunch. That's how it all started."
The obvious question, then, is, Why do these couples risk the heartache that living against the social grain often brings? Why invite hardship when it can be so easily avoided by simply loving within their own race?
The answer, say those who have crossed racial lines to marry, is simple. Because they are in love and because, for them, love is blind--colorblind. As Shadoe Stevens put it, "Our love is bigger than life. It's magical. It has to do with divine guidance and celestial intervention. To me, Beverly is the goddess of light, and from the moment I saw her I simply had no chance."

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interracial friends and dating:

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