DANIELLE VOLLONO — Staff Writer
When walking around Southern’s campus, it is not uncommon to spot an interracial relationship. As a matter of fact, it’s more common today than ever before, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Jason Facey, a 20-year-old communications major, said the majority of his friends do not care that he is in an interracial relationship, but a few of them are very discrimina¬tory against other races.
“I do remember this one time my first year in college,” Facey said. “I have a black friend who was sitting in Conn Hall with another girl who was also black that I had never met. The girl that I had never met looked at me and said ‘I don’t like you.’ And I asked why, and she said ‘I heard you like white girls.’”
Some people frown upon interracial relationships; Facey looks at being in an interracial relationship as a learning experi¬ence. Aside from being exposed to new ways of thinking, he said he is also more open to trying new things.
“It’s one of the best things because you get to experience other people’s cultures and styles,” said Facey. “I think by having interracial relationships we can come together as one instead of being segregated. We can learn a lot from each other that way.”
Chelsea Hebert, a 20-year-old psychology major, has been in an interracial relationship for almost a year and said it is the best relationship she has ever been involved in.
“I think it’s a good thing because you can learn so much about someone else’s culture and race,” Herbert said.
Hebert, who is white and of Irish decent, said she constantly ignores the glares whenever she is out in public with her Jamai¬can boyfriend.
“I have had people give me looks like, ‘Why is she with him?’ because he is black and I am white,” said Hebert. “I just ignore it because no matter what, he and I will always be together and they can just deal with it.”
Genesis Garcia, a 21-year-old education major, said that interracial relationships are much more common today because although racism still exists, there is much less of it.
“I think that interracial relationships are beautiful because God made people dif¬ferent,” said Garcia. “Being able to have that relationship just shows that we are all equal and we are all human beings. Just because you have different color skin, different eye color, or dif¬ferent hair doesn’t make you the person that you are. People are in the relationship because they like you for who you are not for what you look like.”
According to Garcia, not only do interracial relationships benefit the people in today’s generation, but they benefit the upcoming generation as well.
“Interracial relationships give a child a chance to learn about two completely differ¬ent cultures as well as making them open-minded about other cultures, which can lead to less racism,” said Garcia.
Because it has not made recent headlines in New Haven, the topic of interracial relation¬ships seems to have been put on the back burner. Referring to the responses on interracial relation¬ships by students on campus, the current generation of teenagers and young adults appear to have more important issues on their plate than skin color.
