Are There Benefits to Dating Outside of Your Race?

On the surface, people look different according to race – skin color, hair texture and features.    Each race becomes a tribe.  Those tribes are broken into subclasses based on socioeconomics, education, country, language, religion, etc.  However, many believe there is only one race.  Yet, skin color and hair texture seems to say otherwise. 

In the face of Kobe Bryant’s death, the idea of what race you marry appears to matter greatly.  It appears that since Kobe belongs to the tribe of people with naturally brown skin, he was expected to marry from the brown skinned tribe.  He did not.  He married a Mexican.  Many of the women from the brown skinned tribe are expressing anger with Kobe.  There have been a number of videos expressing disdain for him by brown skinned women. 

Marrying someone from the same race could create an enormous amount of comfort for the couple. There may be some traditions they share in common.  And society approves of the union. That can, in fact, create unspoken expectations for one another. If both are from Nigeria, for example, they may expect one another to know the dos and don’ts that are practiced in Nigeria. At the same time, if one is from Saudi Arabia and the other from Mexico, it may be unfair to expect the other to know the traditions of one another’s respective countries. That can have pluses and minuses.

Aside from learning about another culture, there are benefits that result from two people with an open mindset. In some ways they are forced to be more understanding. At some point, they come to the realization that they cannot expect the other to know everything about their culture.