I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Canada. As one half of an interracial couple, Canada is always an amazing place to go because of the public acceptance and frequency of occurrence of interracial relationships. Whether it is black and white, or asian and white or even middle eastern to black, Canada is brimming with relationships that are of mixed races. Compared to many areas in the United States this is a haven for someone like myself. It's not necessarily that I feel outwardly confronted or judged verbally by people in the United States, but there are always those situations where you find yourself catching that person giving you and your partner that extra long, dirty glance. It's rude, embarrassing, and downright undeserved. Simply because of how common interracial relationships are in Canada this rarely ever happens to me while I'm there.
I don't even know exactly why that is what it is. Canada seems, for some reason or another, like a perfect amalgamation of public acceptance for otherwise frowned upon groups in the United States. It is the much more liberal neighbor to the north, and interracial dating is just another aspect of life that they seem to not have any qualms with.
It is the most noticeable when you roam the streets of a major city in Canada. I was in Toronto this past week and we went to a few very popular shopping districts where people of all ages were gathered in large amounts. The diversity of dating couples was remarkable. There were mixed race couples holding hands, kissing, and hugging in broad daylight without a care in the world. If an interracial dating proponent like myself saw this scene they would surely think of it as a utopia.
This is vastly contrasting to how many areas in the United States see open relationships in public among people of different races. I have been to places in the more conservative parts of the United States where racism is sadly not only still a factor, but the idea and practice of openly interracial couples is such a sight for sore eyes that it is simply an unspoken law that you don't do that kind of thing in public. That is obviously a very specific extreme and far from the norm anywhere you will go in the United States, and I'm sure there are places where you would see that in Canada too.
The message I'm trying to make here isn't that the United States is filled with racists and Canada is the promised land for interracial relationships. There are people and regions in every corner of the world that will both accept and reject interracial relationships being openly shown. Just as I had a great experience in the Toronto, Canada area this past week, I have also had similarly eye opening times spent in regions of the United States such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. It seems somewhat based on region, but more so based on the political sphere, age, and immigrant ratio of geographic areas. The areas such as California and Canada have very politically liberal views on life, a younger mean population, and a plethora of overseas immigrants. With all of these factors, the environment is ripe for the growth of interracial love.
No comments:
Post a Comment