User Post: Interracial dating – Is it still taboo?

Being a product of an interracial couple, it never crossed my mind to match my color (a golden brown) to the color of the cutest boy on the playground. It just didn't matter as long he made me laugh and held my lunch box. The older I got the more i realized that the parents of that little boy may not feel the same way.

Throughout my young adult life, I continued to date "blindly" in high school and shacked up with an Australian-Jew during college. I would occasionally get a stare or two, but not often enough to care. Friends would ask me "what's it like?" and "don't you feel uncomfortable?" and I would just laugh and respond with "men will be men… period". People always felt a need to inform me that their sister's husband is another race or a guy at their office has a wife of another race, almost to make me feel comfortable.

There are a couple of moments I can recall where a particular beau's mother made sure I knew that she preferred me to wear my hair straight, rather then my natural curls. Another time, during an innocent lunch date, my date had to correct his mother on the proper way to address someone from African American descent, "no mom no one says negro anymore" as I sat in amazement.

The more I traveled, the more I realized the insane obsession Americans have with race. Clearly, race and race relations run deep in our country, but is interracial dating still taboo? After all, interracial marital sex was deemed a felony in the 1800's, which was finally overturned by the Supreme Court in the case of Loving vs. Virginia in 1967, disposing of all race based legal restrictions on marriage. Yes, you read correctly 1967, a very short time ago.

Fast-forward to the present according to the 2010 census results, nine million Americans checked more than one box for racial origin - that's three percent of the U.S population. Being a multi-racial American (African American, Caucasian, Bajan and American Indian), I felt compelled to title my debut EP "3 Percent & Rising", so my fans have more insight on who I am. I would love to see a day where there isn't a racial origin category on a job application, health insurance application or college application - it shouldn't matter.

The ways of the world are slowly shifting, but will we ever evolve enough to see one another as we are, rather than letting our race determine who we may be?

Shvona Lavette is an actress, vocalist and songwriter. Her debut EP "3 Percent & Rising" is a fitting score of our generation's passions and pursuits and is available on itunes/amazon.com. You can follow her at www.twitter.com/ShvonaLavette or www.facebook.com/ShvonaLavette www. ShvonaLavette.com