Interracial couples in the United States in the '70s and '80s


I've lived in the United States all of my life, which spans over six decades now (!) and while I can't speak for everywhere in the country, I can tell you about the interracial couples that I knew in Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, in the 1970s, and '80s.

As a nerdy kid, I knew early in life that the concept of race is just made up, and has no basis in biology. I've never dated outside of my race, that is, the human race, but I know that a lot of people see things differently, and I've grown wise enough to respect that.

In the 1970s, when I was in high school, I saw a lot of interracial couples, usually black guys and white girls. I realize that the demographics of Minneapolis has changed a lot since then, but other than a random Asian person or two, and maybe someone who seemed a bit Hispanic, the world that I lived in was black and white. Things were changing, but the old folks usually raised an eyebrow at interracial couples, if not ranting about it in a very open way, with hatred. But that attitude didn't stick with me.

In the 1980s I lived in California, and brought my attitude with me, which was that it was all the same to me, but I respected if people disagreed. I was very much aware that I was an average white guy, and I never pretended to be anything else. I met a lot of people from different cultures, and I enjoyed learning about them, and especially trying their food, but I knew that there were places in Los Angeles where I couldn't take my white skin and blue eyes to, and I respected that.

By the way, my high school failed to teach me divisism, and it almost got me in trouble one day when some of my teammates from Washburn went to South to go visit our gymnastics coach, and I wore my letter jacket in there. I really was clueless, but it was cold, and it was the jacket that I usually wore. Luckily, we got in there and left before we annoyed anyone. Hey, I was just a kid!

Since race is a social construct, and I'm Anglo-Saxon, you maybe wondering if I would have been considered part of Hitler's "Master Race", but I wouldn't have been. I have the blue eyes, but not the blond hair, so I'd be a different race. And if you're wondering if Starbelly Sneetches would have approved of me, the answer is also no, as I have no stars on my belly.

One of the encyclopedias that we had, back when I was a kid, had examples of the three races, so I knew about that. And when I grew up, I watched movies like "South Pacific", and they showed me how people are carefully taught to hate. But apparently I never learned.

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear.
You've got to be taught
From year to year.
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear.

You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made.
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

Image at the top of this post: Me in high school in the 1970s.
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