Dear Mr. Schwoeffermann,
Most of the time your poorly researched columns offend merely my journalistic sensibilities, even when I agree with your conclusions. Wednesday, however, your column (“Watch out for ‘Jungle Fever,’” ODE Nov. 15) struck a very different note with me. Not only did your column offend me as a journalist, but it also offended me as a woman of color and the daughter of an interracial relationship.
You argue, for instance, that all interracial relationships “are based entirely on false stereotypes.” I contend that your entire argument is based on false stereotypes, and offensive ones at that.
You give a whole slew of reasons why most people might be tempted to date outside of their race. For black men it’s the “easy white woman”; for black women it’s because “they treat me right”; for white women, it’s the prospect of “a brown baby.” The suggestion that people, black and white, in interracial relationships are this narrow-minded is plainly prejudicial and based largely on negative stereotypes.
The pinnacle of your column’s hypocrisy, however, is when you state that the reason interracial relationships can’t exist in America is because of “negative prejudices … in the general public’s conscience.” The problem with this argument is that you clearly promote prejudice by making broad negative assumptions about black and white people. You legitimize the negative stigma associated with black-white couples.
The part I found most offensive was your mention of Emmett Till. I wonder how he would feel today knowing that you used his brutal murder to vindicate black men and women for dating outside their race, assume that interracial relationships are based solely on stereotypes and exclude the possibility that a black person could ever legitimately love a white person.
If you’re offended to see my father, a dark-skinned native of the Philippines, and my mother, a blond-haired Irish-German, walking down the street and holding hands, then the sight of me must absolutely disgust you. I highly doubt that its been my father’s supposed fantasy about an “easy white woman” or my mother’s supposed “jungle fever” that has sustained their 24-year marriage. I also doubt that the prospects of “brown babies” had anything to do with it, either (but they got two of them.) And that’s just one of more than the few examples that you claim exist out there.
Yes, racism does exist in America. I’ve seen it and I’ve experienced and it probably played a role in the midterm elections. And yes, “jungle fever,” the myth of the exotic and a myriad of other negative stereotypes that drive some people to date outside their race, does exist and I would cautiously guess that they’re far more prevalent and far more deriding than people would care to admit. There are complexities and struggles that exist in interracial relationships that don’t exist in monoracial relationships. But these aren’t reasons to assume that most interracial relationships are based on stereotypes and they’re certainly not reasons to suggest that they can’t ever truly exist.
As someone who’s biracial, I’ve had to battle some of the hurtful and obnoxious stigmas associated with interracial relationships. You only serve to reinforce these stigmas. Mr. Schwoeffermann, I am ashamed for you. That you preach tolerance and the dangers of prejudice is incredulous and hypocritical. You are no ally of my struggle.
Moriah Balingit is a University student