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In the early 70s where I grew up (in what is today a deep blue state), relationships between whites and blacks were rare at best. I can recall people being shocked when seeing them. However, relationships between whites and others (Asians, Hispanics, etc.) were much more common.
Looked at oddly by some, but not too judgy. Rural MO in the 80s and 90s.
My dad was former military though, and didn’t tolerate racism, sexism, etc. it wasn’t in my home. He used the N word sometimes, like calling those mint bon bons N-toes, but he didn’t judge people or color. In fact, he went to the defense of a mentally slow black guy that worked where he worked when people would make fun of him.
And for his actions, turns out the guy’s family was one of the best hound dog breeders and trainers, him included. Dogs worth thousands…and when the guy found out my dad protected him from insults, he gave me the smallest of one of the litters for free.
Im 62. grew up in the 70s. It was not really viewed as too big a deal in my town but it was rare. The junior high and high school were somewhat integrated and it was happening but it was kind of rare. North East USA
Late 60’s London I was in an interracial relationship. No-one really bothered but I wouldn’t have brought him to my home town. A black colleague disapproved however.
Military brat here. It really depended on the races involved, honestly. Grew up around a fairly good amount of it, the most accepted were white and Japanese, white and Hispanic and white and black. The least accepted were the SEA (Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos/Philippines)
I lived in New York City in the 70’s & 80’s. In school, blacks & whites hung out in separate groups and did not date each other. Asians & whites hung out together, but I don’t remember any interracial dating. In college in the 80’s, a classmate dated a black guy, but she knew her mother wouldn’t approve. People still self-segregated for the most part. Black & whites had separate fraternities and sororities, with very different traditions.
I grew up in the 60’s/70’s. I never saw any interracial couples. When I married in1990, I married a man of Mexican descent. We lived on the border of TX and MX. I was the first Caucasian to marry into his family. Just a few in his family were against our marriage. No one in my family objected and thought we were a good match. The only discrimination I received was from Mexican women.
My Uncle (white) married a black woman in 1959. She was beautiful, but it upset my grandparents greatly. My mom spoke highly of her. My dad (his brother) was angry because of the way it was sprung on the family. My uncle literally just showed up with his bride. I mean literally…he rang their doorbell and introduced her. That would have been awkward no matter who it was.
Her name was Bunny, so I’m not sure it was all about race. 🤔
As time marched on, our family is quite liberal and I don’t think anyone would care.
(They did ultimately divorce and my uncle went on to have several more wives. My mom used to say Bunny was too good for him.)
I was in supposedly progressive Austin in the 80s. Having dinner with a black girl, I am not. I queried, What are they staring at? She just gave me a knowing look and I sadly understood.
When I was in high school I told my dad about a teacher that was asking me out and wanting to meet up with me and the teacher was a black man and my dad‘s response was if you have mixed kids shame on you that’s a hard hard road for a child. 1985
I can’t really say, as the only other race of people in my area growing up were Native Americans and they were a part of the community. I don’t really any issues with that or any specific interracial pairings.
When I grew up in the 50s, they were absolutely forbidden. The usual statement was, “Think of the poor children.” That is why today when I see parents saying they should be able to control what their kids are taught in school and control what books are in their school library, I get really upset. My parents believed what they were taught by their parents and I now think those beliefs were absolutely evil and wrong. I was taught better in school than what my parents thought. Fortunately, my parents didn’t try to fight what I was learning in school. They were willing to understand that times change beliefs.
Born 1961 in the Bay Area, AAF. I grew up on the left coast, and we do things differently. 2 of my 3 older brothers had children with and/or married white women. Younger brother married women of color. I was married twice, both white men (NY and OR). Our family also has cousins married to people from our a family history in; Jamaica, Granada, Ethiopia, Mexico, The Philippines, New Zealand, Japan, Dominican Republic, east coast Jewish, and Honduran Catholics. The left coast is still like that today. People are too busy in the rat race to care about that. Now politics ?!?
Grew up in milwaukee wisconsin. My parents were both very open-minded When it came to interracial couples. And had close friends who were interracial. My dad worked with the guy and became very good friends. I graduated high school in 1981. For reference.. there may have been raised eyebrows from some of his work buddies. I do recall him, mentioning a couple of the guys at work and said, “Fuck them once. Never heard him use that word again
Chicago 1970’s. I grew up in Austin when it was already mostly black folks. I dated almost exclusively black girls and got shit from my parents especially but plenty from the girls parents as well. I ended up marrying a Polish wonderful woman and have no regrets but if I didn’t have all the racial shit I’d have married a black girl.
Baltimore. I went to elementary school with biracial kids whose parents had had them before Loving v. Virginia. So they were probably “Born a Crime” (to borrow from Trevor Noah), but no one cared. Both my parents worked in mixed-race workplaces.
Sort of unheard of. We did not have much contact with people of other races. There was one Mexican family, one Asian, one Jewish. Everyone else was German, Polish or Italian. A few Irish.
Nobody ever mentioned it. But I did personally know many white girls who admitted they made it with black guys because they were accused of being racist. Virtually all were bar, disco or roller rink types.
I grew up in Northern New Jersey in the ’60s. It was pretty rare to see an interracial couple where I lived and I imagine it would have been not without rude comments. I do remember asking my mom about interracial couples getting married. I remember her answer was that the marriage would be okay, but she would always end it by saying, ‘but think of the children’, implying that they’d be up for a lot of ridicule and trouble.
One of my Great Aunts married a Black man back in the 50’s when it was highly frowned upon, but she was part Cherokee Indian so it wasn’t so bad for her, but there was also a time marrying a Indian was also frowned upon.
not. my first “girlfriend” and I were 10 years old. we were just goofy kids and she was my best friend. She was also a Vietnamese boat refuge baby and was adopted. i remember telling my parents we were going to get married someday, their response was not approving of interracial marriages. As i grew up i noticed nobody dated outside their race. it was the 70’s and early 80’s so ……
They were pretty rare where I grew up, and I didn’t hear them talked about much. About all I can remember was someone making a comment that a black-white relationship wasn’t a great idea because (in that person’s opinion) any kids that came out of it would probably face some ostracism for being biracial.
I grew up in south Georgia, it was not well regarded. I grew up with people like George Wallace who don’t want white people to have to eat or go to school with people of color, much less marry them. It was a violent time that I see returning.
Very rare and I can’t remember anyone saying anything about them. That may have been because there were so few non-White people around when/where I was growing up there just weren’t that many opportunities for such relationships.
Even in the 80’s people were assholes about it. I was babysitting for my friend. Her baby happened to be biracial and I could not believe the looks and rude comments thrown at us – just for going to the grocery store. Fuck them.
Born in 1966, Grew up in a ‘progressive ‘ town in michigan . My parents had good friends who were black, and even an interracial couple. I had friends who were Puerto Rican, Mexican, black, etc. My parents told me it was OK to date a ‘colored’ guy, but please don’t marry one, as it’s not fair for any kids you might have. I know that white women who married black men were looked down on.
I grew up on Navy bases in the 70’s and 80’s, mostly in Florida. I had at least a dozen friends and one girlfriend growing up who were half Asian of some combination or the other. Philippines, Korea, Japan…
It was very common for sailors to marry women from other parts of the world.
Well, that was deep in the bible belt where racism was the norm from Governor Wallace down to my parents, teachers, etc. Interracial relationships were unheard of. I don’t recall ever seeing one until after I’d left and joined the military. Back in the mid-60’s, racist BS was preached from pulpits with scripture cited supporting same. I got permanently banned from an Aunt’s ‘holy roller’ church when I was 3. I’m told that I stood up on the pew and told the preacher that he wasn’t a very nice man. I don’t remember doing that. I do remember that my Aunt was furious on the way home and there was a LOT of yelling when we got there. The story would come out at every family reunion though and I was always reminded that I was a bad child. The only thing that I remember from the church itself was that they had a full band. Electric Guitar, Drums, etc. (Those were the only instruments that I recognized back then) That really stood out to me as the church that my parents dragged me to didn’t use any instruments at all.
I was raised in the south, so, what do you think. They were still lynching black men, women, and children in the town square where I was raised. The police did nothing. My mom kept us home some Saturdays because of what had happened the night before. So, mixed marriages were not tolerated by most people and those brave men and women who married because of their heart and not their skin color matches, well, they had a hard life.
A guy of a different race asked me to prom, having no prior relationship, the girl I shared a locker with and besties up until that point moved out of locker and scribbled all sorts of racial slurs all over the door.
Also “lectured” and Mom crying telling me how awful my future kids lives would be if I had a relationship with certain races.
Lived in Chicago Suburbs.
Circa 1973, Im white as snow, I was walking home with the new kid at school named Ricky. We got about a block from his house and he stopped. He pointed and said that is where I live but you can’t come any further my dad will kill me if he sees you. He was black. My first experience with Racism. Ricky’s dad did not like whitey. This is a 100% true story. Oh, in Calgary Canada.
My sister, Caucasian, dated an MFL fullback, very dark skinned. He was a descendant of slaves.
They got a lot of dirty looks but no one said a word.
I whish I could have seen the look on parents face though when he came over the first time.
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So much race baiting today on this sub. WTF?
In the early 70s where I grew up (in what is today a deep blue state), relationships between whites and blacks were rare at best. I can recall people being shocked when seeing them. However, relationships between whites and others (Asians, Hispanics, etc.) were much more common.
Can’t say I ever saw any.
My neighborhood could be pretty racist back in the day.
Looked at oddly by some, but not too judgy. Rural MO in the 80s and 90s.
My dad was former military though, and didn’t tolerate racism, sexism, etc. it wasn’t in my home. He used the N word sometimes, like calling those mint bon bons N-toes, but he didn’t judge people or color. In fact, he went to the defense of a mentally slow black guy that worked where he worked when people would make fun of him.
And for his actions, turns out the guy’s family was one of the best hound dog breeders and trainers, him included. Dogs worth thousands…and when the guy found out my dad protected him from insults, he gave me the smallest of one of the litters for free.
Racism sucks, kindness is awesome.
They were considered inappropriate and received plenty of public hostility. You had to have guts to date out of your race back in the 50s or 60s.
There was no interracial anything in the neighborhood I grew up in. If there were… The view would have not been positive.
They didn’t happen.
They were a novelty
Welp, i have a WASPY last name, a blonde haired sister, and am a member of the DAR. I am also very dark.
In high school, more than one kid told me he would like to date me, but I looked “too Mexican.”
So I married a Colombian.
Im 62. grew up in the 70s. It was not really viewed as too big a deal in my town but it was rare. The junior high and high school were somewhat integrated and it was happening but it was kind of rare. North East USA
Relationships between religions has also evolved. My cousin’s parents refused to come to her wedding because she was marrying a Catholic.
As a sick perversion
People always said “Oh, I feel sorry for the children.” Which was bizarre and stupid.
I can’t remember knowing a single black-white couple growing up. I had one neighbor where the husband was white and the wife was Japanese.
By the time I got to college (class of 1987) inter-racial dating was unremarkable.
Late 60’s London I was in an interracial relationship. No-one really bothered but I wouldn’t have brought him to my home town. A black colleague disapproved however.
I grew up in the south during the 60s so take a wild guess …. lol
Not favorably.
Military brat here. It really depended on the races involved, honestly. Grew up around a fairly good amount of it, the most accepted were white and Japanese, white and Hispanic and white and black. The least accepted were the SEA (Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos/Philippines)
Chicago, late 80s, 90s, sometimes these relationships got unwanted attention, speaking from personal experience.
I lived in New York City in the 70’s & 80’s. In school, blacks & whites hung out in separate groups and did not date each other. Asians & whites hung out together, but I don’t remember any interracial dating. In college in the 80’s, a classmate dated a black guy, but she knew her mother wouldn’t approve. People still self-segregated for the most part. Black & whites had separate fraternities and sororities, with very different traditions.
I grew up in the 60’s/70’s. I never saw any interracial couples. When I married in1990, I married a man of Mexican descent. We lived on the border of TX and MX. I was the first Caucasian to marry into his family. Just a few in his family were against our marriage. No one in my family objected and thought we were a good match. The only discrimination I received was from Mexican women.
My Uncle (white) married a black woman in 1959. She was beautiful, but it upset my grandparents greatly. My mom spoke highly of her. My dad (his brother) was angry because of the way it was sprung on the family. My uncle literally just showed up with his bride. I mean literally…he rang their doorbell and introduced her. That would have been awkward no matter who it was.
Her name was Bunny, so I’m not sure it was all about race. 🤔
As time marched on, our family is quite liberal and I don’t think anyone would care.
(They did ultimately divorce and my uncle went on to have several more wives. My mom used to say Bunny was too good for him.)
I was in supposedly progressive Austin in the 80s. Having dinner with a black girl, I am not. I queried, What are they staring at? She just gave me a knowing look and I sadly understood.
Gen X, raised in the 70s and 80s
while the adults of that time thought it was fucking horrible, I thought people my age were cool with it
until I connected with a bunch of people I went to high school with and realized yeah they became racist pieces of shit like their parents were
When I was in high school I told my dad about a teacher that was asking me out and wanting to meet up with me and the teacher was a black man and my dad‘s response was if you have mixed kids shame on you that’s a hard hard road for a child. 1985
I grew up in Georgia in the late 50s and 60s. You tell me. 🤷🏻♂️
My parents couldn’t get married in Maryland in the late 50’s they had to go to Washington DC. My father was from the Philippines
I can’t really say, as the only other race of people in my area growing up were Native Americans and they were a part of the community. I don’t really any issues with that or any specific interracial pairings.
When I grew up in the 50s, they were absolutely forbidden. The usual statement was, “Think of the poor children.” That is why today when I see parents saying they should be able to control what their kids are taught in school and control what books are in their school library, I get really upset. My parents believed what they were taught by their parents and I now think those beliefs were absolutely evil and wrong. I was taught better in school than what my parents thought. Fortunately, my parents didn’t try to fight what I was learning in school. They were willing to understand that times change beliefs.
There weren’t any in the circles I moved in as a kid, but in college we had some and nobody blinked an eye at them. This was Texas.
Born 1961 in the Bay Area, AAF. I grew up on the left coast, and we do things differently. 2 of my 3 older brothers had children with and/or married white women. Younger brother married women of color. I was married twice, both white men (NY and OR). Our family also has cousins married to people from our a family history in; Jamaica, Granada, Ethiopia, Mexico, The Philippines, New Zealand, Japan, Dominican Republic, east coast Jewish, and Honduran Catholics. The left coast is still like that today. People are too busy in the rat race to care about that. Now politics ?!?
Grew up in milwaukee wisconsin. My parents were both very open-minded When it came to interracial couples. And had close friends who were interracial. My dad worked with the guy and became very good friends. I graduated high school in 1981. For reference.. there may have been raised eyebrows from some of his work buddies. I do recall him, mentioning a couple of the guys at work and said, “Fuck them once. Never heard him use that word again
Chicago 1970’s. I grew up in Austin when it was already mostly black folks. I dated almost exclusively black girls and got shit from my parents especially but plenty from the girls parents as well. I ended up marrying a Polish wonderful woman and have no regrets but if I didn’t have all the racial shit I’d have married a black girl.
Depends on your shoebox. It wasn’t viewed great where I was.
Baltimore. I went to elementary school with biracial kids whose parents had had them before Loving v. Virginia. So they were probably “Born a Crime” (to borrow from Trevor Noah), but no one cared. Both my parents worked in mixed-race workplaces.
White girls who dated black guys were looked down on.
Grew up in Hawaii so more common there than anywhere else in the USA.
In Canada, international relationships have mostly been between Caucasian/Indian/Asian as there are few Afro-Canadians(?) .
The curiosity was mostly about traditions, food and religion tbh. Which practices were kept and forgotten
Sort of unheard of. We did not have much contact with people of other races. There was one Mexican family, one Asian, one Jewish. Everyone else was German, Polish or Italian. A few Irish.
Nobody ever mentioned it. But I did personally know many white girls who admitted they made it with black guys because they were accused of being racist. Virtually all were bar, disco or roller rink types.
I grew up in Northern New Jersey in the ’60s. It was pretty rare to see an interracial couple where I lived and I imagine it would have been not without rude comments. I do remember asking my mom about interracial couples getting married. I remember her answer was that the marriage would be okay, but she would always end it by saying, ‘but think of the children’, implying that they’d be up for a lot of ridicule and trouble.
Some old bitch spat on me. Probably 1981 or 82.
Hostility from white people.
From non-white people, mostly fear for your safety and the safety of any children you might have.
My mother told me she would feel “very sorry” for any interracial offspring because they would be “so ugly.” This was like 1983, maybe?
boston mass…. italian side, anything goes…. irish side…… “stay in your own neighborhood”…….
One of my Great Aunts married a Black man back in the 50’s when it was highly frowned upon, but she was part Cherokee Indian so it wasn’t so bad for her, but there was also a time marrying a Indian was also frowned upon.
not. my first “girlfriend” and I were 10 years old. we were just goofy kids and she was my best friend. She was also a Vietnamese boat refuge baby and was adopted. i remember telling my parents we were going to get married someday, their response was not approving of interracial marriages. As i grew up i noticed nobody dated outside their race. it was the 70’s and early 80’s so ……
They were pretty rare where I grew up, and I didn’t hear them talked about much. About all I can remember was someone making a comment that a black-white relationship wasn’t a great idea because (in that person’s opinion) any kids that came out of it would probably face some ostracism for being biracial.
Unusual, but no big deal at all.
I grew up in south Georgia, it was not well regarded. I grew up with people like George Wallace who don’t want white people to have to eat or go to school with people of color, much less marry them. It was a violent time that I see returning.
Very rare and I can’t remember anyone saying anything about them. That may have been because there were so few non-White people around when/where I was growing up there just weren’t that many opportunities for such relationships.
Not really unusual, fairly liberal area of Colorado in the 60’-70’s
When and where I grew up … no thoughts of it whatsoever. No Blacks, no Asians, no Hispanics. Closest to it was someone marrying a French Canadian.
I grew up in the 80s and I had a hard time dating in high school. But by college, everyone wanted a Black girlfriend. 🏆
I grew up in a house full of hippies in the 60’s and 70’s. Interracial couples were all over and it was great.
Even in the 80’s people were assholes about it. I was babysitting for my friend. Her baby happened to be biracial and I could not believe the looks and rude comments thrown at us – just for going to the grocery store. Fuck them.
Born in 1966, Grew up in a ‘progressive ‘ town in michigan . My parents had good friends who were black, and even an interracial couple. I had friends who were Puerto Rican, Mexican, black, etc. My parents told me it was OK to date a ‘colored’ guy, but please don’t marry one, as it’s not fair for any kids you might have. I know that white women who married black men were looked down on.
I grew up on Navy bases in the 70’s and 80’s, mostly in Florida. I had at least a dozen friends and one girlfriend growing up who were half Asian of some combination or the other. Philippines, Korea, Japan…
It was very common for sailors to marry women from other parts of the world.
Well, that was deep in the bible belt where racism was the norm from Governor Wallace down to my parents, teachers, etc. Interracial relationships were unheard of. I don’t recall ever seeing one until after I’d left and joined the military. Back in the mid-60’s, racist BS was preached from pulpits with scripture cited supporting same. I got permanently banned from an Aunt’s ‘holy roller’ church when I was 3. I’m told that I stood up on the pew and told the preacher that he wasn’t a very nice man. I don’t remember doing that. I do remember that my Aunt was furious on the way home and there was a LOT of yelling when we got there. The story would come out at every family reunion though and I was always reminded that I was a bad child. The only thing that I remember from the church itself was that they had a full band. Electric Guitar, Drums, etc. (Those were the only instruments that I recognized back then) That really stood out to me as the church that my parents dragged me to didn’t use any instruments at all.
I was raised in the south, so, what do you think. They were still lynching black men, women, and children in the town square where I was raised. The police did nothing. My mom kept us home some Saturdays because of what had happened the night before. So, mixed marriages were not tolerated by most people and those brave men and women who married because of their heart and not their skin color matches, well, they had a hard life.
Also “lectured” and Mom crying telling me how awful my future kids lives would be if I had a relationship with certain races.
Lived in Chicago Suburbs.
They were viewed differently by everyone. I saw nothing wrong with them and still don’t.
Circa 1973, Im white as snow, I was walking home with the new kid at school named Ricky. We got about a block from his house and he stopped. He pointed and said that is where I live but you can’t come any further my dad will kill me if he sees you. He was black. My first experience with Racism. Ricky’s dad did not like whitey. This is a 100% true story. Oh, in Calgary Canada.
Object of derision and/or disgust, unfortunately. Shameful.
My sister, Caucasian, dated an MFL fullback, very dark skinned. He was a descendant of slaves.
They got a lot of dirty looks but no one said a word.
I whish I could have seen the look on parents face though when he came over the first time.
Normal.