Oral+History+Reflection

My grandpa has told me many stories about himself and my grandmother prior to this interview. However, it wasn't until this interview that I started to truly think about racial issues back in the 1960s. Based on what my grandparents have said, interracial dating was not that big of a deal to African Americans; they were generally more accepting and open minded. The white community viewed interracial dating as taboo and something that is not morally acceptable. It was amazing to see how differently blacks and whites responded to interracial couples. I never would have thought my great grandpa was a racist (he used to always buy me chips) or that my grandpa was a jock and was hated by my grandma's family.

The consequences of interracial dating weren't very harsh if you didn't care how others thought about you. My grandparents were able to ignore all the disgusted looks and snide comments, and, as a result, has had a 44 year (and counting) relationship. Their children, who ended up being mixed, were treated a little differently in society. The world had a problem accepting them, and society placed them in a box labeled "black" just because they were mixed. The view I got was from a couple consisting of a black man and a white female. I wonder how people reacted to a white man, black woman couple?