I’ve been blogstalking Devis With Babies, a blog by two South Asian women (with babies) that I came to via the very thought-provoking Sepia Mutiny. DWB has a comic called “Brown Girls” and its latest episode discussed the Bradley effect – both national and personal.
Apparently this comic got a lot of people over at Sepia Mutiny talking. I felt a little bit like I was listening in on someone else’s conversation, but I couldn’t help it. There’s a lot of black-brown tension (that’s black-Latino, as well as black-South Asian) going around, and it’s always interesting to me to see how first- and second-generation folks deal with race issues and cultural intermingling. I live in an area with a very large South Asian population, and I’ve never seen a mixed couple.
With the election rapidly approaching, talk turned to what an Obama presidency might mean for interracial dating. Deepa at DWB had this to say:
Our buddy Barack’s race is no secret. It’s out there, looming large, for all of us and our personal Bradley-mechanisms to see, internalize, learn from. This can ONLY do good things for our little devis and boy-devis: The President of the United States–dark and “different”–is going to look more like our kids than those of the Smiths and the Jones. Yes it’s superficial but so is discussing politicians’ haircuts, Neiman Marcus shopping sprees, use of spray foundation, love of pretzels. Superficial isn’t always as superficial as we think. Unpack a comic and you might find a debate.
Interracial dating is obviously a touchy subject. I’ll say for myself that my father would be very, very unhappy if I married someone who isn’t black, while my mother is more practical: “whoever makes you happy” is her motto.
Now that I think about it, I wonder if having a loving black family in the White House will put more pressure on black women to find themselves a Barack?