Jennifer Yamin, Columnist February 14

It wasn’t until I went to a MIXED — a student team for people of blended racial lineage — dinner that We understood just how many different ethnicities, or combinations of them, occur on our campus. Pupils from Venezuela, Japan, Italy, Guatemala and many other countries were all squeezed into only one dining room table.

MIXED additionally held a meeting Wednesday called “Interracial Dating” that included a panel of three guests: Asian American Studies and African American Studies Prof. Nitasha Sharma, Ph.D. prospect Kareem Khubchandani and professional wedding and family counselor Jakara Hubbard.

Kalina Silverman, the co-founder and co-president of MIXED, explained the objectives for the panel.

“Hopefully, this panel will help clean up along with bring to light some of the problems in the wide world of interracial dating,” Silverman said.

After the event’s discussion, we considered interracial dating at NU. No one has precise data in the dynamic that is dating experience on campus, but i’ve noticed the ability for interracial dating is more than possible.

Silverman noticed the relevance of such an interest on campus too.

“As we gain increased quantities of independency and choice, we have been now placed to think about more of the complexities about whom we choose to date and finally relax with,” she stated. “As colleges have become more ethnically and culturally diverse, interracial relationship becomes especially commonplace on campuses. And despite people believing so it’s not a hot or appropriate topic, it really is specially pertinent today.”

I really have experienced this pertinence Silverman talks of. As being a half-Korean, half-Lebanese feminine, you are able to trust me when I say that interracial relationship can lead to many benefits.

One benefit I continue steadily to see as being a total consequence of my parents’ marriage is an experience of different, yet amazing, foods. My family members’s Thanksgiving dinner contains preferences from throughout the world. As well as the obligatory turkey, the table includes Lebanese specialties like kibbe and Arabic rice and hummus, which sit next to the Korean beef, noodles and veggies. Needless to say, dating someone of a race that is differentn’t immediately ensure delicious foods will magically show up on your plate, however it allows you to experience a wider number of meals and see ingredients previously foreign to you.

It’s maybe not food that is just new outcomes from the heterogeneous relationship but in addition the opportunity to read about other countries. By dating someone of the various competition or ethnicity, you expose yourself to new experiences. You feel more mindful of different cultures, lifestyles and histories from individual perspectives your books can’t about teach you. You improve your understanding of the world and its certain relationships that are cultural.

We should open up the window for interracial dating, particularly for those individuals who have not considered it or feel held back by another’s competition. By making these couples more noticeable in culture, as well as here on campus, the stigma surrounding interracial dating can slowly disappear. By stigma, I signify sometimes look my family gets as soon as we head into a restaurant and sit back at a table. We can still sense the puzzlement in people’s eyes when they see us together although we are a normal family.

Silverman said she has seen the stigma as well, citing a current Cheerios commercial depicting a family that is biracial drew some backlash.

Multiculturalism in relationships is growing but not at a rate that is especially impressive. It could take time, but hopefully there will be per day when a Cheerios won’t that is commercial criticism for having an interracial family members, per day when my household won’t receive those 2nd appearance in a restaurant.

To be able to eliminate any prejudice connected with interracial relationship, we should just practice it.

Jennifer Yamin is just a correspondence sophomore. She are reached at [email protected] . In the event that you would like to react publicly to this line, send a Letter towards the Editor to [email protected] .