Introducing ethnic diversity into a racially homogeneous family

Erin Goldberg Post 9

I know that last week we discussed the issue of interracial dating. After I blogged about it last week I got to thinking a lot about how families react when one or more of their members decide to marry and produce children with people outside of their own ethnic identification. Obviously I believe that there is nothing wrong with doing this, however, I know that sometimes older members of families react unfavorably to their children and grandchildren interracial dating. Like we have discussed in class, it was our grandparents were part of a different generation and had different social norms. In my family there has been an interesting example of this. My uncle who is gay just recently proposed to his partner of six years. His partner Chris is also African American. I've come to see that certain older members of my family have a more difficult time dealing with my uncle marrying a black man than they do with him just marrying a man in general. And for some of the younger members of my family, like my other aunts and uncles, they have more of an issue with my uncle's homosexuality than they do with the color of Chris's skin.

I've come to realize that the social norms of today are quite obviously different than those of the past and that they will continue to shift for as long as humanity continues to exist. When my uncle and his partner told my great-grandmother that they were looking into adoption from Vietnam, she had a small moment of internal conflict. As much as I love her, I could tell that racially diverse great-grandchildren were never what she foresaw in our family's genetic line. But again I also realize that her lack of understanding and discomfort comes from being born in a time much different from mine. The idea of racial purity is quiet simply a ridiculous one, and I think that with time, it will be one that is slowly eradicated from our society.