I will be very happy when the novelty and other people's fascination with this goes away. My boyfriend, now fiance, and I still get occasional stares or double takes. Albeit usually from foreigners or tourists from Nebraska.

Kim K. is really celebrated the Loving case because it means that she can be photographed and taped having relations with all the famous black men.

Don't forget the Game, Diddy, Batman from Immature (lol), Tyson Beckford, ex-husband Damon Thomas, and who else that we don't know about. Shorty is on her own Million Man March.

And now on to the Loving case. A couple of facts behind it if you don't know (I had to read this case in my family law class in law school): This white guy wanted to marry this black woman, but the state of Virginia didn't allow marriages between whites and non-whites. So they went to DC, got married and returned to good ol VA. Upon reentry into the Commonwealth, they were arrested and charged with violating the ban and sentenced to a year in jail. However, they could skip the year in prison if they promised to leave the state of VA for 25 years. The reasoning for the 25 year ban? The state figured that any offspring that would come from this unholy union would not grow up in the state and cause any further mixing of the races.

A quote from the original case: Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

Wonder who the main group was behind those interferences with the Lord's so-called arrangement? lol

maybe it's the anonymity of websites that is inspiring me, but i have to admit, i am guilty of staring at black/white couples. for the sake of various friends in interracial relationships, i am working on it.

I've seen some cute white boys in my day, but dammit, brothas are just so fine, and I love their swagger so much that I can't see myself going another way. Who knows?

I didn't know that race=swagger, but I guess I learn something everyday.

Paula and Robin are my favorite. I like Halle and Gabriel too, more because of the age difference.

I love men who are intelligent, handsome happy and all that good stuff who adore me as I am. Lots of black men have fulfilled all but that adore-me-as-i-am. What's a woman to do?

gosspjunkie, it's okay. I stare at couples who just don't seem right together. Generally, it's when the woman is very big and the man is thin or muscular, or when one is clearly far more attractive than the other. I wouldn't stare at any of the above couples.

I also think the novelty of this has warn thin, particularly talking about blacks dating outside our race. Black people face enough challenges without having to tolerate judgement from our own people about who we date and what the motivation is behind it.
Why not give people the benifit of the doubt.
Don't assume that dating outside your race is a statement of loathing your own…maybe its just too people of like mind and interests going out and having a laugh.
People preoccupied with interracial couples need to look at what's lacking in their own relationships/lives. Otherwise, why do you care? Is it bc your dating pool has shrunk? Is it bc you're unhappy with your own relationship or lack there of? Examine that before judging.

These are just beautiful people, that's why I'd stare.

I care because I think building more strong, happy, positive black families entails more black/black marriages. That's just my take. Some people do not care about that goal (happy black families) and would rather just have happy families or happy people. That's one way of looking at it which certainly has merit. I'm not ready for a color blind society, though, and still want to see black people doing fabulous things and living fulfilled, happy, positive lives. To me, that requires black people marrying and procreating with other black people. I realize this is a bit of a throwback viewpoint and don't expect others to agree. But, since this is an open forum I also feel comfortable sharing that point and engaging in discussion on this website. At the end of the day, people should do whatever makes them happy and enter love relationships with whomever suits them. However, I will continue to pursue those relationships with black men. I'll go a step farther and say I hope that my family members do the same (caveat here, I would rather they be in a relationship with a non-black person than a bad black person, but I hope that goes without saying). Generations down the line, I still want us to have a black family; maybe that's a weird goal but it is of the utmost importance to me (and for that matter, to my other family members, we are in agreement on this one).

As I reread this paragraph, the sentence on still wanting to see black people achieving reads a little funny. It's not that black people can't be happy with non-blacks. My point is just if a significant portion of blacks really do engage in interracial relationships, eventually, there will be no "black" people. I realize that will take many generations to happen, but as I've already seen it happen in small branches of my family, it's a legitimate concern.

gossip - you bring up a good point and one that I have heard from many people. If too many of us procreate in interracial relationships there will be no black people. But are we 100% African? no, we are all mixed to a certain extent. My father is Shreveport, LA creole and my mother is all kinds of black and native American, but we are all still BLACK. I am still black regardless of what my grandfather was on my father side and all that crap. My future children may be mixed, but may go on to marry black people and then have children and so on and so forth.

I do feel you, however, that we need to keep our race strong and growing if we want to survive in the future. My brother has 4 pure bred boys ranging in age from 2-7 so I may not be able to help you out in that regard, by brother is. This is a little off topic, but 50% of all black teens drop out of high school so it doesn't matter how many of us there are, if we are dumb and have no recourse, but criminality in the future we are going to die off in jails and at the hands of pigs anyway. That should be a major focus, but I digress. (sorry for typos, but it's hard to type fast on this damn laptop, y'all)

the notion of there being no black people sounds far-fetched, but while there may not be an erasure of the whole black race, i think certain small family lines will certainly "die off" as far as being black in the future. in the old days, one mixed kid would still likely marry a black person b/c of the one drop rule and so forth. now, i feel like (again, no evidence to support this other than family experience) a mixed person is more able to claim "biracial" and feel connected to all parts of his or her culture. then, that kid is perhaps more likely to marry a non-black person. next thing you know, a few generations later the whole family is white or certainly ambiguous. more power to folks who see that sort of race-mixing as positive, but i'm very proud of being black and want my family to remain that way.

that was just one argument against interracial relationships. i have others, haha. i swear i'm not a hate-monger, but i value black families and black love. also, i want to have a family with someone who shares my historical and cultural perspective, as well as my values. some of those are not tied so tightly with race, but indeed a lot are.

i am also more inclined to view things the way i do because i do not believe there is any "one" person for you. if i thought that way, maybe i would think that if you refused to date interracially, you could be missing your "one." however, i think that there are realistically many people out there that you could be compatible with and create a healthy relationship with. this is getting convolluted, but what i'm saying is people who feel like they've found their "soul mate" with a non-black person could have just as easily found someone they are compatible with who is black. the fact that they didn't was a matter of choice (personal choice yes, so it's up to them and not my business to judge that), but what i mean is that it was a conscious decision on their part to be with a nonblack person.

i am not rereading or editing what i wrote, so i'm sure it's not well put. i also expect that it's fairly inflammatory. my apologies if i've offended anyone. i just would like to see blacks marrying other black people and having lots of black babies, call me old fashioned.

Also, I feel like I would let my entire family and all the generations before me down if I married a non-black person and began my own "biracial" branch of the family. It's one of those things, yes the Loving case was a major moment legally and opened an opportunity for us…I get that. There are other opportunities and opened doors in terms of education or the professional world that I'd like to explore. On the other hand, I don't want to marry interracially just because the civil rights movement made it a possibility legally. I feel like I can make my family proud by pursuing those modern opportunities, while I'd more likely embarrass them by pursuing others (interracial marriage).

Also, when I say interracial, I'm more so talking about black/white.

I understand what you are saying completely, and I don't think you are old fashioned at all. I actually agree with you. I'm evolved enough to be able to agree in theory and disagree in practice.

Ok. Don't so much agree with the last post of yours. We must have been posting at the same time. I do not by any means feel like am letting anybody down in my family. Nor do I feel as though my grandfather felt that way when he had my father and so forth. I do not carry anyone's responsibility but my own. Just wanted to clarify.

thanks for engaging in discussion, i appreciate it. my friends are more "enlightened" than me and pretty much don't have this discussion with me any longer.

as far as letting my family down, i guess what i mean is i can imagine the look of shock and horror on my dead grandfather's face if he knew that the advanced education/exposure that i have been able to receive (as a blessing of the civil rights movement and which he would obviously support) just put me in a position to branch out of my black scene and marry a white guy. my grandfather was pretty much a racist, though, so maybe that's a bad example, lol.

Haha. Black folks can be an odd bunch, can't we? My father was half white and as high yella as they come, but was one of the most militant, racist people my mother (who is very dark skinned) has said she'd ever met. So go figure.

And I'm down for a good discussion any day. Peace.

Interesting comments.

I find myself in awe at the idea that people still believe in trying to keep a "pure" race. Living, breathing and being a descendant of a multi-cultural heritage is such a beauitful experience.

One can only hope that one day our society will become "color blind".

[...] struck down similar laws nation-wide. The anniversary of the ruling, June 12th, is known as "Loving Day." Sadly, Loving died Friday at the age of 68. Her husband* died in 1975. [AP] May 5, 2008 [...]