Modern Living: Boy, Girl, Black, White

• Share

No definitive statistics exist on the subject, but the evidence of the eye cannot be denied: interracial dating is noticeably on the increase. Liberalized admissions policies at universities have mixed more black and white undergraduates, and it is now commonplace to see interracial couples strolling in college towns. The Peace Corps and Vista have been responsible for further interracial dating—and intermarriage. Social activism has established a solid common ground for white and nonwhite youth. Obviously, the next census will show a great many more mixed marriages since the 1960 figure of 50,000.

But if the numbers are on the upswing, the partners' lives are not. Traditionally, dating is the prelude to marriage, and many white Americans who accept the concept of black power would prefer to see that power insulated. When Dean Rusk's daughter wed a black in 1967, the Richmond News Leader spoke for many Southerners—and Northerners—who felt that mixed marriages were "eccentric," and that "anything which diminishes [Rusk's] personal acceptability is an affair of state."

Partly to blame is the ancient legend of black supersexuality. Such reputed potency may be openly ridiculed, but it still has its adherents—many of them enlightened and young. A white coed at Boston University says: "A lot of girls feel that black guys really have it. You see this all around the colleges. It's a very sexual thing." A black male classmate agrees, but with a difference: "What is it that white girls want from me? Do they think we're that different, that we're some kind of animal? Why do so many of them chase us?"

Liberating Power. Spurred by the black community's strengthened sense of identity, black women have their own complaint. In the Negro Digest, Actress Abbey Lincoln burst out: "We are the women whose bars and recreation halls are invaded by flagrantly disrespectful, bigoted, simpering, amoral, emotionally unstable, outcast, maladjusted, nymphomaniacal, condescending [white] women in desperate and untiring search" for black men. In the first issue of the new black women's magazine Essence, due out April 28, Writer Louise Meriwether describes a typical dashiki-clad black man and his white date: " 'Sensual, sexy Black man.' That's what her look conveys." But an approaching black girl conveys another look. " Traitor. Talking Black and sleeping white.' " The black women's liberation movement has its male adherents, like Eldridge Cleaver, who apostrophized: "Flower of Africa, it is only through the liberating power of your relove that my manhood can be redeemed."