I've Got Jungle Fever. (kinda)

Interracial dating..some love it, some hate it, me..I don't really know my stance. As a child who not only comes from a culture that by definition is mixed heritage (Hispanics are considered Black, Spanish and Indian mix..oftentimes not being viewed as an individual race..shout out to all my Panamenos/Panamenas) but also was raised in an interracial home (my mother is Hispanic and my father is African American), I have an interesting opinion formed from both my-first hand experiences and my apathy.

When I was younger, my family and I didn't live in the United States therefore the fact that my parents were "interracial" or hell the fact that I was Black, was never brought to my attention. Eventually, we relocated and I quickly realized that something was different. I didn't know if it was me, everyone else, United States but something was definitely different. Classmates kept asking me if that was my "Real" mother and why I could speak/understand Mexican. (Don't mind the ignorance, I moved to Texas and the majority of the Spanish speaking population is Mexican/Mexican-American). I just didn't quite fit in. Physically, I was African American but culturally I wasn't there. However, I wasn't with the Hispanic population physically OR culturally. So what did I do..I had to get in where I fit in..and so I assimilated and adapted to Black Culture and a revolutionary was born :-).

I went off to college at a the largest public university in the nation with a Black population of 3%!! This only made my inner Asata Shakur roar louder. By sophomore year I was talking about how I was against interracial dating and had the nerve and audacity to condemn and lecture my parents on the error of their ways.

It wasn't that I was just against their union, more so that I recognized that people oftentimes enter these interracial relationships without thought of the cultural differences that WILL arise.

For example, my mother was raised catholic, my father AME both largely based on cultural influences. However, when they married they could not decide on a religion,so what did they do...NOTHING. I was not raised in "the church" but I was taught there was a God and the basic tenants of Christianity. I was left to chose my own religion and my own church because neither could overcome their cultural differences.

Another example, were times when my father would have "it's because he is a black man" moments (ie. OJ Simpson trial) and my mother would respond with the common, "Oh Please that doesn't happen anymore". Now my mother, bless her heart, is by no means a racist or naive woman more so a product of her environment like we all are. So it was beyond her and her experiences to understand that a black man can and would be targeted merely because of his race. However, those who are black and therefore more closely in tuned with the Black struggle recognize that sometimes life isn't fair and that yes even in 2007 a black man is sometimes targeted for nothing more than being what God has made him. Lastly and personally the most devastating for me, is that oftentimes as time passes one individual accepts and conforms to the cultural traditions and customs of the other and begins to abandon their own. It is far more difficult than it seems to integrate two or more cultures, it's customs, and it's beliefs into one household. In my case my mother slowly but surely began to lose touch with her culture, not because she necessarily tried to, but more so because she didn't try not to. The thing that keeps culture alive is the active practicing of culture, you know the family reunions, the cook-outs, Big Mama's potato salad and banana pudding. Or the Quinceaneras, arroz con pollo,and ceviche. These things are done, the children see it and the children learn it and repeat. But all that culture, that which you read on those you know you are (insert race) lists; got lost in the translation of the diplomacy of merging a African American man and a Latina.

These days, my apathy has kicked in. What do I care how you chose to live your life and with whom you chose to do so? As long as it doesn't affect me, my husband, my future children, my money, or my house...I don't give a damn. I have enough going on in my own life then to be worried about anyone but me and mine. Ironically my husband is multi-racial as well, (his mother is half white and half West Indian and his father is African American). So I will learn from the ways of generations past and we will pass all the Black, Latino, West Indian, and White lovin' we have.

Stricken with Jungle Fever for a lifetime :-),

SSD