I answered a reporter’s query about the tolerance of interracial relationships in North America since I’m a diversity speaker and one of the things I talk about in my presentations is such change in acceptance of interracial dating as well as media exposure for all races during different times.
As an Asian, I’ve experienced the attitudes in interracial dating in particular. I still recall in my younger days that my own parents were very much against me dating girls other than Chinese origin. Then as the years went by, they relaxed their stance on this as they became more exposed to interracial couples out there as well as even some of their own brothers and sisters (my aunts and uncles) marrying outside their culture.
Some people are slower to adapt than others, even within my own generation and perhaps some never will. I once briefly dated a lady and she even voiced her concern about us as an interracial couple. Of course, any potential for a relationship with this particular lady quickly dissolved. However, I have had many dates and a few relationships with women from different races since then.
Diversity of a population certainly has something to do with it, especially here in Toronto which is the most multicultural city in the world according to the United Nations. So interracial couples are a common sighting here and nobody even takes a second look. As a result, I think that increased tolerance of other types of relationships have also been observed. One example would be gay couples.
As for US and Canada compared to foreign nations on this issue, I think it depends on the diversity of each specific community. Toronto and New York will have more interracial acceptance than say small farming towns in rural parts of both countries. The same goes with foreign countries as it depends on location within each country.
Having said that, there are still many ethnic communities regardless of generation which still do not seem to accept interracial dating, at least not with someone of their own culture.
