Mixology

I'm not referring to cocktails (nor I do I endorse the chichi-fication of bartending).  I'm referring to mixing ethnicities, to interracial dating - cross-cultural unions that increase global interpersonal understanding and world peace in general.  Honestly, many of the world's problems come from the "otherization" of entire people groups because they look, talk, act differently from you.  And when some people do that, their warped minds give them license to exploit, discriminate against, oppress, even attempt to wipe out those groups.  We see it here in the United States in the all out war against "illegal aliens."  I honestly do not appreciate the use of the term "illegal alien" to describe someone because it draws upon the fears and prejudices of the name-caller and fails to recognize that person's humanity.  I love how interracial dating does its part in alleviating that.  If genuine and unfetishized, it sees a person as more than just a collection of strange customs, beliefs, and traditions, but attempts to look beyond that, to the core of the person.

Sometimes interracial dating leads to interracial marriages to multiracial children. Let me just say, multiracial children are the future. They are neither black or white, brown or yellow.  They may be two of these.  They may be all of these. In recognizing the different aspects of their heritage, I would imagine multiracial children would be much less likely to turn into prejudiced, racist, bigots.

  I don't mean to romanticize interracial dating. There are definitely creeps that date outside of their ethnicity because they have some sort of weird sexual fetish.  I once heard of a guy who looked like Stuart from MAD TV that thought all Asian women found him irresistible simply because he was white.  My Asian friend quickly refuted that claim.  However, I encourage anyone's attempt to broaden their cultural understandings because it will lead to an open, welcoming, and tolerant society. When someone dates or marries someone outside of their ethnicity, they make a pretty solid commitment to be more open, welcoming, and tolerant. But please don't date anyone solely to "broaden your cultural understanding."  That's a tad insulting and defeats the purpose.  The beauty lies in finding someone you love and embracing the differences between you and that person.

Will I ever date outside of my ethnicity? Probably. I don't know what the future holds. I may even end up marrying a Latino, perhaps even one of the  Salvadoran variety.  It certainly would be a lot easier.  They'd probably speak spanish so they could hold conversations with my abuela and know the right way to eat a pupusa. They'd also understand my love for cumbias and that obscure cultural reference I may someday make.  Or maybe I won't.