Feed: Mixed Race UK - AggScore: 45.4

Mixed Race Dating

Depending on the country and culture being observed, Mixed Race dating has taken on its own specific taboos. Let us start by looking at the history of interracial dating in America.

Richard Loving, who was white and Mildred Jeter, who was black lived in Virginia and wanted to get married in 1958 but was by law forbidden to be married in that state because of their difference in race. By law it was forbidden for a white person to marry any other than another white person. So they went to Washington D.C. to be married.

The law in the State of Virginia not only forbid mixed-race marriages, but also made it a crime to go out of state with the intent of avoiding the prohibition. After returning to Virginia, by law, they faced prosecution and were sentenced to 1 year in jail for marrying out of state and returning to Virginia. This decision was overturned in 1961 due to issues of unconstitutionality.

It was not until 1967 that laws against interracial marriages were banned in the U.S. because they were considered unconstitutional. This was the direct result of the supreme court case of Loving vs. State of Virginia.

It has only been 43 years since this supreme court decision, and America has come a long way. There is a lot more tolerance of mixed race dating, especially in the large metropolitan areas.

However, even in these areas there is at times stares, more than likely from someone who has had prejudices passed down to them, sometimes subconsciously by caregivers or peers.

My personal experience in being in a mixed-race relationship for the past 16 years is that there are sometimes stares and glares, and I find that they are best taken with a grain of salt while you go about your business.

But, about a 2 years ago, after being married for 12 years, we were in Atlantic City and an older woman gave us what I perceived to be such a long, hard and evil stare, that really took me by surprise.

Sometimes your relationship may not be accepted even by close family members. Remember, it is your life and don't let anyone stand between you and the feelings you have for someone else.

I recently found out that there are sites dedicated to Mixed Race Dating. I try to be open minded, but I find it limiting to pursue a mate initially based on race. I believe that attraction is more spontaneous, however, I can see how even though you may limit yourself to one race you could still find that attraction.

Mixed-Race Dating in Other Countries

England

There appears to be more tolerance for mixed race dating in England, and that may be due to the fact that unlike America's history of slavery, the ethnic population were at first, mostly indentured servants, then immigrants.

I would appreciate feedback from Mixed Race couples who have dated in England in order to better understand the differences.

Please also feel free to share your experiences from other parts of the world.

Sourced from mixed-race-planet.org

Mixed Race Girls

Mixed race girls that are perceived as attractive would find it much easier to balance the focus on their looks by pursuing and developing other talents at a young age. Pursuing mastery in various areas of their life will allow them to build self esteem and confidence.

All races have there share of attractive people. But as reported in Dr. Michael Lewis' recent study, a majority of mixed race people are perceived as being more attractive

I think that it could be distracting for a girl to have too much attention focused on her looks. I'm not a girl, so it would be interesting to know how girls that found themselves as being the center of attention from a very young age feel about this topic. Please feel free to share your comments below.

If too much focus is placed on a young girl and her exotic looks, she could become objectified and in turn rely too much on her features. Being exotic could be a double edged sword for a mixed race girl. If she is desired, she could feel that it's for superficial reasons because of her exotic looks, and if she's not desired she could feel that it's because she looks different.

Since mixed race girls are seen by a lot of men and labeled by society as exotic, this could prove to be distracting to her psychological and sociological growth and development. A girl's looks could also prove to be a source of jealousy from other girls at a very young age.

Competition among girls could start at a very young age, as they are more concerned with looks and some tend to spend a lot of time gossiping about each other. Donna Jackson Nakazawa, Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?:

A Parent's Guide To Raising Multiracial Children This could very much impact a mixed race girl and self esteem and confidence would be an important part of her arsenal to deflect some of these social attitudes.

I am not saying that girls should hide or be ashamed if they are attractive, but that they should be taught to not let themselves be objectified by men. This could be accomplished by encouraging them to focus on areas that they like that can build character and self esteem. Young girls that are well rounded will develop the ability to deflect overemphasis on her looks.

Mixed race boys on the other hand have a better opportunity at blending as competition among boys for the most part revolves around sports. If a boy is involved in sports he usually finds a level of camaraderie that transcends race and culture.

Sourced from mixed-race-planet.org

Happy New Year

Hi Folks,

Here at mixed race UK we've been working tirelessly over Christmas on producing new site content for all us mixies out there.

Regular Visitors may noticed we've given the site a bit of a revamp on the background to make it look more interesting to move around the site.

Bowing to pressure from a number of our female mixies we've added a new mixed race babies section to our photo gallery plus we've also added more mixed race celebrities to our photos gallery and we're shortly going to be adding more information about our exisiting celebrities.

You can find the relevant areas here: male mixed race celebrities female mixed race celebrities

For mixed race hair tips visit our health and beauty section. My sister, Lucy is working right this second on some exciting new articles for you all. Stuff to do with Conditioners and all that jazz.

Also over this coming year we're going to be speaking to different companies about hair product reviews and looking to supply new mixed race products in our shop area including mixed race clothes.

On a downside you may notice that the occassional popup advert might appear from time to time. we know they are slightly annoying at times, however we've had to implement these so we can move forward and improve the site further in the long run.We've the improvements we've got planned I'm sure you won't mind in the long run.

Happy new year. Mixed Race UK.

New Content Live

New mixed race content available on Mixed race UK.

Mixed race people are 'more attractive' and successful

Mixed-race people are 'more attractive' and more successful, results of a new study suggest.

The Cardiff University study involved rating 1,205 black, white, and mixed-race faces.

Each face was judged on its attractiveness, with mixed-race faces generally perceived as more attractive.

Author of the study, Dr Michael Lewis, also suggested mixed-race people were disproportionately successful in many professions.

The study based its hypothesis on Darwin's notion of heterosis, the biological phenomenon that predicts that cross-breeding leads to offspring that are genetically fitter than their parents.

Dr Lewis said the phenomenon was mirrored in the results of his study.

"The results appear to confirm that people whose genetic backgrounds are more diverse are, on average, perceived as more attractive," Dr Lewis said.

Yet there is reason to believe that mixed-race people may not just be more attractive, but more successful.

Dr Lewis said: "There is evidence, albeit anecdotal, that the impact of heterosis goes beyond just attractiveness.

"This comes from the observation that, although mixed-race people make up a small proportion of the population, they are over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions like acting with Halle Berry, Formula 1 racing with Lewis Hamilton - and, of course, politics with Barack Obama."

Dr Lewis will present his findings to the British Psychological Society's annual meeting on Wednesday.

Wednesday, 14 April 2010 07:12 UK  BBC NEWS

New Content Available on Mixed Race UK

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Mixed-race people perceived as ?more attractive?

People of mixed race are perceived as being more attractive than non-mixed-race people, a University study has found. 

In the largest study of its kind, Dr Michael Lewis, School of Psychology, collected a random sample of 1205 black, white, and mixed-race faces.

Each face was then rated for their perceived attractiveness to others - with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as being more attractive.

Dr Lewis said: “Previous, small scale, studies have suggested that people of mixed race are perceived as being more attractive than non-mixed-race people. This study was an attempt to put this to the wider test.

“A random sample of black, white, and mixed-race faces was collected and rated for their perceived attractiveness. There was a small but highly significant effect, with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as more attractive.”

The study could also have wider implications than just attractiveness.

First established by Darwin in 1876, heterosis (or hybrid vigour) is a biological phenomenon that predicts that cross-breeding leads to offspring that are genetically fitter than their parents.

As heterosis is considered to be a universal biological effect, it is possible that humans are also subject to its influence and helps explain why mixed-race people appear more attractive.

Dr Lewis added: “The results appear to confirm that people whose genetic backgrounds are more diverse are, on average, perceived as more attractive than those whose backgrounds are less diverse. This can be taken as evidence for heterosis among human population groups.

“There is evidence, albeit anecdotal, that the impact of heterosis goes beyond just attractiveness. This comes from the observation that, although mixed-race people make up a small proportion of the population, they are over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions like acting with Halle Berry, Formula 1 racing with Lewis Hamilton; and, of course, politics with Barack Obama.”

A copy of Dr Lewis’ paper - Why are mixed-race people perceived as more attractive? will be presented to the British Psychological Society’s annual meeting (Wednesday 14th April) and is available at: www.perceptionweb.com/abstract.cgi?id=p6626.

Article courteousy of http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/articles/mixedrace-people-perceived-as-more-attractive.html

Multi-racial Britain

By Diane Abbott MP

Last updated 2009-11-05

Martin Luther King aspired to a society where a man's character was more important than the colour of his skin. Diane Abbott asks whether a a truly multi-racial society ever be achieved in modern day society. 

The myth of a pure society

As a woman of African descent, I have got used to the surprise on some people's faces when they find out I am also a British MP. For some people, it is a surprise that I am British at all. Particularly if they are not themselves from Britain and have never heard my name.

For millions of people all over the world, Britain is the land of tradition, the Royal Family, Beefeaters, Bobbies on the beat and, above all, white people. In much of middle America, it comes as a shock for them to hear that there any black people in Britain at all. But even if people can get their head around the idea that I might be British, the notion that I could be an MP often perplexes them.

An MP? Surely, I can see their eyes say, a British MP must be white. There are many lifetimes of war, conquest, history, literature, culture and myth behind the idea that Britain is a racially pure Society. And in the study of history, myth is just as important as reality. But the racial purity of the British has always been a myth.

From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ. But even in Elizabethan times, there were numbers of blacks in Britain. So much so that Elizabeth I issued a proclamation complaining about them. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century, black people make fleeting appearances in the political and cultural narrative of the British Isles. Black people can be seen as servants in the prints of Hogarth. And in many paintings of the era. In Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair', Ms Schwartz, the West Indian heiress is obviously supposed to be of mixed race. She is gently mocked but her colour is not otherwise remarked on.

Slavery

British schoolchildren are taught about the abolition of slavery. They hear less about the key role that slavery played in the British economy in the eighteenth century. Britain was the centre of the triangular traffic whereby British ships took goods to Africa which were exchanged for slaves which the same British ships transported to the Caribbean and North America before returning home. The majority of these slaves worked in the plantations of the Caribbean and North America. But some came to Britain to be personal household servants. Over time, they inter-married with native born Britons. It would be interesting to know how many British people who consider themselves racially pure have an African slave generations back in their family. And, of course, between the wars, black seamen turned ports like Liverpool and Cardiff into multi-racial areas. Yet there was tendency for the black areas of these seaports to be cut off from the rest of the city. It was possible until not so long ago to visit Liverpool for the day and not be aware it had a sizeable black community. Such was the de facto segregation that still existed.

For a long time...there was an assumption that the white race and culture was, and should, be dominant

So in the literal sense, multi-racialism is nothing new. Britain has always been a multi-racial society. What is new is the visibility of its racial diversity. And what is newer still is a willingness to accept that all the races can have parity of esteem. For a long time, even when it was acknowledged that there were people of different racial origin within the British Isles, there was an assumption that the white race and culture was, and should, be dominant.

Legacy of the empire

he creed of racial superiority was very much part and parcel of the culture of the empire. The British Empire was built on a theory of racial inferiority. The great Victorian writer and poet, Rudyard Kipling, wrote extensively on the supposed superiority of the British and talked about 'lesser breeds without the law'. It was the alleged superiority of the non-white races that supposedly legitimised taking over their countries and subordinating them to second class status. So even until quite recently British text books talked about Europeans 'discovering' countries like America, Australia and the source of rivers like the Nile. Whereas in fact there were plenty of non-white people who were in America and Australia all along who knew perfectly well where the source of the Nile was. And until recently writers talked about the Europeans bringing civilisation to Africa and the Indian sub-continent. As if these countries had not seen highly sophisticated Empires and societies long before the Europeans came.The British Empire was built on a theory of racial inferiority

When you read in the old textbooks about the supposedly civilising mission of the British, one is reminded of the comment of Gandhi. He was asked what he thought about British civilisation. He paused for a long time and then said thoughtfully 'It would be a good idea'. So fixed in the British mind, was the racial inferiority of the people whose lands they took over that for a long time archaeologists believed that the sculpture and carvings of the city of Benin in Nigeria could not have been done by black people. And similarly that the great 'lost' city of Zimbabwe in southern Africa could not have been built by black men. In direct line of descent of that kind of thinking is Prince Phillip's idea that poor quality electrical work must have been done by Indians.

To have a genuinely multi-racial society there needs to be genuine economic equality between the races. I do not believe that you can talk about a multi-racial Britain or anywhere else unless there is a measure of economic empowerment for all groups within Society. This means making sure that there is genuine equality of opportunity in education for all races. And that the barriers for black and ethnic minority advancement in business and in the profession are taken down. But economic empowerment for minorities is a necessary precondition but not sufficient to bring about a genuinely multi-racial society. Because nationhood and society is as much about ideas as anything else, the role of culture, literature, philosophy and the arts in building a mult-racial society is key. The first step is that the influence of black and ethnic minorities in the culture of a country like Britain is properly acknowledged.

Recognition

There is no doubt the history of twentieth century popular music is very much the history of African music as it has been mediated through North America. There is almost no sort of pop music that doesn't owe something to black American influence. And in art, the influence of African art has long been acknowledged on modern abstract painters like Picasso. More recently, the literary establishment has been willing to acknowledge the contribution of black and ethnic minority writers like Ben Okri, Alice Walker, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Arundathi Roy, Salman Rushdie and Nobel prize winning Toni Morrison. And at the level of popular culture, different races have enriched British life greatly.

There is no doubt the history of twentieth century popular music is very much the history of African music

There is no doubt that the presence of ethnic minorities in Britain and much more foreign travel have transformed the British diet for the better. Noticeably fish and chips have been overtaken by curry as the most popular British takeaway. For many years, Britons have got used to seeing black athletes like Linford Christie representing them internationally. And much of the famous "Cool Britannia" that mix of music and fashion which is admired internationally derives from different ethnic street styles. We are also seeing an unprecedented level of intermarriage between the races. It is noticeably more common to see mixed race couples in Britain than in the U.S. which has had a larger black population for longer. There can be no doubt that as more and more British either have a black person in their family or at least knows someone that has a black person in their family, ideas about the desirability of racial purity will have to be examined by even the most die hard conservative.

So multi-racialism is easy to talk about but hard to achieve. Britain is a more open, more multi-racial society than ever before. And one where different races and cultural influences are beginning to be positively acknowledged and given equal respect. We have come some way but there is still further to go. Martin Luther King dreamed of an America where a man's character would be more important than the colour of their skin. I suspect that we will know that Britain has become a genuinely multi-racial society, when the skin colour of a British MP is no more significant than the colour of their eyes.

Full Credit for this Article goes to Diane Abbott and BBC.co.uk

Multi-racial Britain

By Diane Abbott MP

Last updated 2009-11-05

Martin Luther King aspired to a society where a man's character was more important than the colour of his skin. Diane Abbott asks whether a a truly multi-racial society ever be achieved in modern day society. 

The myth of a pure society

As a woman of African descent, I have got used to the surprise on some people's faces when they find out I am also a British MP. For some people, it is a surprise that I am British at all. Particularly if they are not themselves from Britain and have never heard my name.

For millions of people all over the world, Britain is the land of tradition, the Royal Family, Beefeaters, Bobbies on the beat and, above all, white people. In much of middle America, it comes as a shock for them to hear that there any black people in Britain at all. But even if people can get their head around the idea that I might be British, the notion that I could be an MP often perplexes them.

An MP? Surely, I can see their eyes say, a British MP must be white. There are many lifetimes of war, conquest, history, literature, culture and myth behind the idea that Britain is a racially pure Society. And in the study of history, myth is just as important as reality. But the racial purity of the British has always been a myth.

From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ. But even in Elizabethan times, there were numbers of blacks in Britain. So much so that Elizabeth I issued a proclamation complaining about them. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century, black people make fleeting appearances in the political and cultural narrative of the British Isles. Black people can be seen as servants in the prints of Hogarth. And in many paintings of the era. In Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair', Ms Schwartz, the West Indian heiress is obviously supposed to be of mixed race. She is gently mocked but her colour is not otherwise remarked on.

Slavery

British schoolchildren are taught about the abolition of slavery. They hear less about the key role that slavery played in the British economy in the eighteenth century. Britain was the centre of the triangular traffic whereby British ships took goods to Africa which were exchanged for slaves which the same British ships transported to the Caribbean and North America before returning home. The majority of these slaves worked in the plantations of the Caribbean and North America. But some came to Britain to be personal household servants. Over time, they inter-married with native born Britons. It would be interesting to know how many British people who consider themselves racially pure have an African slave generations back in their family. And, of course, between the wars, black seamen turned ports like Liverpool and Cardiff into multi-racial areas. Yet there was tendency for the black areas of these seaports to be cut off from the rest of the city. It was possible until not so long ago to visit Liverpool for the day and not be aware it had a sizeable black community. Such was the de facto segregation that still existed.

For a long time...there was an assumption that the white race and culture was, and should, be dominant

So in the literal sense, multi-racialism is nothing new. Britain has always been a multi-racial society. What is new is the visibility of its racial diversity. And what is newer still is a willingness to accept that all the races can have parity of esteem. For a long time, even when it was acknowledged that there were people of different racial origin within the British Isles, there was an assumption that the white race and culture was, and should, be dominant.

Legacy of the empire

he creed of racial superiority was very much part and parcel of the culture of the empire. The British Empire was built on a theory of racial inferiority. The great Victorian writer and poet, Rudyard Kipling, wrote extensively on the supposed superiority of the British and talked about 'lesser breeds without the law'. It was the alleged superiority of the non-white races that supposedly legitimised taking over their countries and subordinating them to second class status. So even until quite recently British text books talked about Europeans 'discovering' countries like America, Australia and the source of rivers like the Nile. Whereas in fact there were plenty of non-white people who were in America and Australia all along who knew perfectly well where the source of the Nile was. And until recently writers talked about the Europeans bringing civilisation to Africa and the Indian sub-continent. As if these countries had not seen highly sophisticated Empires and societies long before the Europeans came.The British Empire was built on a theory of racial inferiority

When you read in the old textbooks about the supposedly civilising mission of the British, one is reminded of the comment of Gandhi. He was asked what he thought about British civilisation. He paused for a long time and then said thoughtfully 'It would be a good idea'. So fixed in the British mind, was the racial inferiority of the people whose lands they took over that for a long time archaeologists believed that the sculpture and carvings of the city of Benin in Nigeria could not have been done by black people. And similarly that the great 'lost' city of Zimbabwe in southern Africa could not have been built by black men. In direct line of descent of that kind of thinking is Prince Phillip's idea that poor quality electrical work must have been done by Indians.

To have a genuinely multi-racial society there needs to be genuine economic equality between the races. I do not believe that you can talk about a multi-racial Britain or anywhere else unless there is a measure of economic empowerment for all groups within Society. This means making sure that there is genuine equality of opportunity in education for all races. And that the barriers for black and ethnic minority advancement in business and in the profession are taken down. But economic empowerment for minorities is a necessary precondition but not sufficient to bring about a genuinely multi-racial society. Because nationhood and society is as much about ideas as anything else, the role of culture, literature, philosophy and the arts in building a mult-racial society is key. The first step is that the influence of black and ethnic minorities in the culture of a country like Britain is properly acknowledged.

Recognition

There is no doubt the history of twentieth century popular music is very much the history of African music as it has been mediated through North America. There is almost no sort of pop music that doesn't owe something to black American influence. And in art, the influence of African art has long been acknowledged on modern abstract painters like Picasso. More recently, the literary establishment has been willing to acknowledge the contribution of black and ethnic minority writers like Ben Okri, Alice Walker, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Arundathi Roy, Salman Rushdie and Nobel prize winning Toni Morrison. And at the level of popular culture, different races have enriched British life greatly.

There is no doubt the history of twentieth century popular music is very much the history of African music

There is no doubt that the presence of ethnic minorities in Britain and much more foreign travel have transformed the British diet for the better. Noticeably fish and chips have been overtaken by curry as the most popular British takeaway. For many years, Britons have got used to seeing black athletes like Linford Christie representing them internationally. And much of the famous "Cool Britannia" that mix of music and fashion which is admired internationally derives from different ethnic street styles. We are also seeing an unprecedented level of intermarriage between the races. It is noticeably more common to see mixed race couples in Britain than in the U.S. which has had a larger black population for longer. There can be no doubt that as more and more British either have a black person in their family or at least knows someone that has a black person in their family, ideas about the desirability of racial purity will have to be examined by even the most die hard conservative.

So multi-racialism is easy to talk about but hard to achieve. Britain is a more open, more multi-racial society than ever before. And one where different races and cultural influences are beginning to be positively acknowledged and given equal respect. We have come some way but there is still further to go. Martin Luther King dreamed of an America where a man's character would be more important than the colour of their skin. I suspect that we will know that Britain has become a genuinely multi-racial society, when the skin colour of a British MP is no more significant than the colour of their eyes.

Full Credit for this Article goes to Diane Abbott and BBC.co.uk