http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051104/...nA2BHNlYwM3NDI-Race relations still have a ways to go By Yolanda Young
Fri Nov 4, 7:49 AM ET
Fifty years ago, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was lynched in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Thankfully, today we appear to live in a new world.
Gallup's annual Minority Rights and Relations poll of 2,264 adults released last month found that a majority of Americans now approve of interracial dating.
The numbers are encouraging, particularly among the young. Not surprisingly, approval declines significantly with each succeeding age category, probably a reflection of those whose lives intersected more with the days of Till, Rosa Parks and the civil rights era.
Race remains a very complicated issue in the USA, and the poll findings belie the subtle differences that continue to divide us in everyday life. A few recent examples:
• Two blonde California teens, Lamb and Lynx Gaede, make up the folk music duo, Prussian Blue. The two have been stirring up attention and controversy by promoting white supremacy and praising Nazism through their songs.
• A CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Sept. 13 showed that more blacks than whites viewed race as a contributing factor to the slow response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
• The FBI recently acknowledged that it is investigating "racially threatening letters" to New York Yankees star Derek Jeter. Jeter, whose father is black and mother is white, is the latest in a series of professional athletes who have received such threats.
But alas, a child will lead them. The Gallup poll found that in the 18- to 29-year-old category, approval of interracial dating was nearly unanimous. In fact, many of those surveyed indicated that they actually had done so. While the majority of Americans continue to date and marry people of their own race, interracial dating and marriage is on display in every aspect of society, mostly among the younger generation.
The world's most popular golfer, Tiger Woods, has a Swedish wife. A few years ago, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Jennifer Lopez were the reigning hip-hop couple. Earlier this year, the movie Guess Who told the story of a black artist who brings home to dinner her white boyfriend, a Wall Street trader. The film was a box-office hit. And ABC is working on a deal with comedian George Lopez and writer Don Reo to create a multigenerational, interracial adult comedy.
This country will truly have something to celebrate when we notice interracial couples about as much as we do interfaith ones - virtually not at all. Perhaps then we will not only love the ones we're with, but also respect and embrace the culture they're from.
Yolanda Young is author of On Our Way To Beautiful.